It was still a 15-point spread midway through the second period when Mattoon went on another scoring surge, this time an 11-2 run to close out the first half and took a 41-17 advantage to the locker room.

Junior Delainey Bryant and sophomore Mallory Ramage, who combined for 44 points in the game, had 27 of their team’s points in the first half. Many of Bryant’s 14 were off layups following turnovers, while Ramage made three shots from behind the arc and had 13 more.

To the Lady Hearts credit, they continued to play hard the second half. Sawyer Althoff and Taylor Armstrong hit the first two baskets of the third quarter, helping EHS stay even with Mattoon, as both teams scored 10 points.

“They took it to us early in the game and we backed off,” Schafer said. “I thought we showed a little more grit in the second half. That is a very good team we played tonight and they played awesome.”

Ramage finished with 24 points and Bryant added 20 for the Green Wave, who improved to 23-5 overall and 10-0 in the Apollo Conference.

Annie Frost and Armstrong led Effingham with six points and Althoff and Diveley both scored five. The Lady Hearts shot 42 percent overall, making 15-of-36 attempts. They were 2-for-7 from long range and didn’t attempt a free throw. In fact, there was just one free throw shot the entire game and that was by Mattoon in the second period.

The Lady Hearts dipped to 12-15 overall and 4-6 in conference play. They have three games left before the postseason begins – Monday at Charleston; Thursday at Lincoln; and Saturday, Feb. 15 at home against Olney.

“I told the girls this was just one game,” Schafer noted. “We’ve done a nice job the past month and a half and I told them we just need to keep building on that. We’ve got three really tough games left that will help us get ready for the regional.”