He was referring to senior Saige Althoff, who is out for the season due to a virus.

“Saige has been our heart and soul all year,” Schafer noted. “That’s a big loss for us. But the girls responded and then played great defense all night. I couldn’t more proud of this team.”

The Lady Hearts now advance to the Bethalto Civic Memorial Sectional. They will face either Mt. Vernon or Carbondale on Tuesday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m.

After an absolutely brutal shooting performance by both teams in the first half, the Lady Hearts came out red hot when the second half started.

Sidney Donaldson hit a short jumper 42 seconds into the third period that sparked a scoring surge. Bella Austin followed with a basket and Donaldson hit another shot to give Effingham a double-digit lead, 23-12, at the 6:33 mark.

Makenna Witham scored for the Lady Knights, but then Alyssa Martin scored three straight points and Donaldson hit another jumper, giving EHS a 14-point cushion, 28-14. Heading into the final eight minutes, Effingham was still on top by 10 points, 33-23.

That’s when Troy Triad went to a full court zone press and things started getting tighter because the Lady Hearts didn’t handle that pressure very well. They committed seven turnovers in the final period and the Lady Knights took advantage.

A three-pointer and later a three-point play by Savannah Hildebrand – both after turnovers – got Troy Triad within 37-31. EHS got the lead back to nine, 40-31, but then four more turnovers resulted in seven straight points, capped by a pair of free throws by Erica Boyce that made it 40-38 with 1:50 to play.

“The girls were disappointed in not taking better care of the ball, but to their credit, they kept playing,” Schafer said. “They need to make pass fakes, especially against a team that’s pressing like that. But I still had confidence in them and they went out and got the job done.”

Nine seconds later, Austin knocked down a pair of free throws that seemed to calm things down. After Troy Triad missed a shot on its next possession, the Lady Hearts ran some time off the clock before Bria Beals got the ball on the wing, made a nice move and drove to the basket for a layup that made it a six-point spread, 44-38, and just 59 ticks remaining.

“I knew we had to keep playing to win. Sometimes, getting too passive can backfire on you,” Schafer noted. “After Bria’s basket, I started feeling pretty good.”

The Lady Knights went scoreless down the stretch, but the Lady Hearts kept expanding the lead at the foul line. Averie Wolfe, Austin and Donaldson each made a pair of foul shots in the final 32 seconds to secure the win and guarantee a return trip to the sectional.

“This is a great feeling,” Schafer admitted. “This group really came together, especially after losing Saige. This is a special group.”

Nobody looked special in the first half. Sayings like – “There’s a lid on the basket.” Or “They couldn’t throw it in the ocean.” – summed things up pretty well.

In a word, it was ugly.

And the second period was the ugliest.

After Martin hit two foul shots and Austin converted a Troy Triad miscue into a bucket, the Lady Hearts carried a 9-7 lead into the second period.

A total of 13 points were scored in that quarter – and 11 of them came from the free throw line.

The Lady Hearts made the only shot from the floor and that came by Donaldson with 36 seconds remaining to give EHS a 17-12 lead at intermission. Combined, the two teams were 1-for-23 – Effingham 1-for-11 and Troy Triad 0-for-12.

“We had a chance to pull away in the second quarter, but couldn’t make any shots,” Schafer said. “It’s a good thing we were stopping them at the other end. We just kept playing defense. That’s what we do best.”

The defensive effort was stellar.

“We wanted to take away their threes, make them drive and not foul,” the EHS coach explained. “With Saige out, we had to gamble and put Alyssa on No. 4 (Witham). That scared me because Alyssa has a tendency to foul. But she did a great job.”

Beals was assigned to Boyce and Wolfe guarded Hildebrand. Both of those girls are good outside shooters. But not Thursday night. The Lady Knights finished 4-for-31 from behind the arc.

“I don’t know that we could have done a better job defensively,” Schafer admitted.

Witham scored 13 points to lead Troy Triad, which finished its season 23-9. The Lady Knights made 12-of-55 shots overall, a 22 percent clip. They shot an icy 13 percent in the first half, making only 3-of-23 attempts. They were also 10-for-17 at the foul line.

Effingham had three players in double figures. Donaldson led the way with 17 points, while Austin scored 14 and Martin added 10.

The Lady Hearts made 14-of-35 shots, a 40 percent effort. The second half pulled that percentage up a great deal. The girls were only 4-of-19 in the opening 16 minutes. EHS was 0-for-8 from three-point range, but converted 22-of-28 free throws.

The Lady Hearts improved to 25-7 for the season.