“Nobody was more elated than Tate Niebrugge and Coach Farmer,” the EHS coach admitted. “Tate has been in a bit of slump. Maybe that’s the shot he needed to turn it around. I couldn’t be happier that is was Tate that hit that shot.”

Niebrugge added two more free throws, plus Wolfe and Nate Thompson both scored to cap the big run. Mt. Zion got a pair of threes in the final minute, but never seriously threatened down the stretch and fell to 2-13 overall and 0-5 in the conference.

In addition to the clutch shooting in the final eight minutes, the switch to a zone defense was also a factor.

“We went to a 2-3 zone. We had never even practiced that before,” Farmer noted. “Mt. Zion was cutting so much, we had to do something different. As the quarter went on, we got more efficient at it. We’re fortunate to have smart kids that are able to do things like that.”

Other than an early spurt, the lead hovered between three and six points for much of the game through three quarters. Drew Thompson hit a pair of threes and Wolfe added another from long range and the Hearts pulled out to a nine-point lead, 17-8.

But Mt. Zion’s Ethan Hamrick connected on a buzzer-beating three to make it 17-11 after the opening eight minutes. Baskets by Dylan Ritz and Nate Thompson extended the EHS lead to 21-14, but the Braves battled back to within 23-21 at halftime.

The Hearts twice led by six points in the third period, but just couldn’t shake a Mt. Zion team that played extremely hard. The Braves tied the game at 31-31, but a three by Drew Thompson and a free throw by Nate Thompson put Effingham on top for good, 35-31, entering the fourth quarter.

“Mt. Zion works really hard,” Farmer said. “We like to pressure the ball, but when you do that, it can open up some backdoor cuts and they took advantage. They’ve only won two games, but there is no quit in them. Effort makes up for a lot of things and their effort is tremendous. It’s the most valuable skill they have.”

The Hearts had three players reach double figures. Drew Thompson led the way with 16 points, while Nate Thompson scored 15 and Wolfe added 11. Nate Thompson finished with a double-double, also pulling down 10 rebounds.

Effingham shot 46 percent from the floor, connecting on 18-of-39 shots. The Hearts were 6-for-17 from three-point range and 13-of-18 from the foul line.

“I thought we overcame some adversity tonight,” Farmer said. “But we dealt with how hard Mt. Zion played and did the things we needed to do to come away with the win. Our kids are resilient. If I put together a game plan, they can make it work. Their basketball IQ is very high.”

The Hearts improved to 10-6 overall and 3-2 in Apollo Conference play. They will return to action today (Saturday) in the St. Anthony Shootout. Effingham will face Casey-Westfield at 3:30 p.m.