It was a tale of two halves.

The Lincoln Lady Railsplitters torched the nets from long range in the first half and built a 26-point lead.

Effingham then responded with a furious rally in the final two quarters, but the deficit proved too much to make up, as the Lady Hearts dropped a 49-40 decision at home Thursday night.

Kloe Froebe and Ryen Stoltzenburg combined to knock down nine 3-pointers in the first 16 minutes. Froebe had five and scored 23 points and Stoltzenburg added four from behind the arc and netted 12. At halftime, Lincoln had a seemingly comfortable 41-15 advantage.

To the Lady Hearts credit, they didn’t give up. They outscored the Lady Railsplitters 11-4 in the third period and 14-4 in the final eight minutes to close the gap considerably.

Froebe had six of Lincoln’s eight second-half points and finished with 29. Stoltzenbrug didn’t score in the second half.

Annie Frost led Effingham with 17 points and Ella Niebrugge scored nine.

The Lady Hearts dipped to 2-3 overall and 2-1 in the Apollo Conference. They will return to action Saturday with a home game against Charleston and then travel to Mahomet-Seymour on Monday.