“I don’t know why we start so slowly. I just don’t know,” EHS coach Jeff Schafer said. “Then we come out in the third quarter and look like a really good basketball team. I know we’re capable of playing like that. We need to be more physically and mentally tougher.
“I think we would have won two more games if we were a little tougher,” Schafer added. “I think the pieces are there. We need to be tougher and we need to be the aggressor. I thought we played like that in the third quarter.”
Unfortunately, the cold shooting and inability to take care of the basketball put the Lady Hearts in a deep hole in the opening two quarters.
After an early 2-2 tie, it was a nightmare. Charleston’s full-court press created numerous turnovers and led to some easy baskets. And when the Lady Hearts did get shots – and they had plenty of good shots -- they were ice cold.
A bucket by Madison Mapes cut the Lady Trojans’ lead to 12-5 with about two minutes to play in the opening period. Unfortunately, the home team didn’t score again for nearly 10 minutes. That came from Taylor Armstrong with just two seconds left in the second quarter and broke an 0-for-14 shooting streak.
In the meantime, Charleston, led by its standout point guard, Shae Littleford, ran off 18 unanswered points. Littleford tallied 16 points in the first half and helped her undefeated team to a 23-point cushion.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had a team do so many decent things in a half and be down by so many points,” Schafer noted. “We had a few situations that weren’t good. There were some times we didn’t execute and other times we didn’t finish. But we had some good shots. We just didn’t hit them. Then we came out in the third quarter and looked like a different basketball team.”
And what about that press?
“We knew they were going to do that and we were ready for it,” Schafer said. “We got the ball to the middle many times. But then we tried to dribble it rather than catch it, turn and pass the ball ahead. That’s when we got in trouble. For some reason, we were hesitant to make that pass.
“When we did it right, we got some easy baskets,” the veteran coach added. “It’s just disappointing we can’t do that the whole 32 minutes.”
Armstrong scored again just 13 seconds into the second half to kick-off an impressive 15-2 scoring surge. The senior scored four times during that run. Meredith Schaefer drained a three from the corner and added another jumper and Annie Frost scored from the inside as well.
With 3:04 to play in the period, the Lady Hearts had closed the gap to 31-22.
At this point, Charleston started pressing again and Effingham was unable to keep up the momentum. The Lady Hearts turned the ball over three times in the final three minutes and the Lady Trojans converted two of those into layups. By the end of the period, the deficit was back to 15 points, 39-24.
The margin fluctuated between 16 and 18 points for much of the final eight minutes. The Lady Hearts continued to play better than they did in the opening half, but were unable to close the gap.
“Charleston is tough,” Schafer admitted. “They know how to run that press, they’re hard to keep off the boards and they have a very good leader in Shae.”
The Lady Trojans, who have played only Apollo Conference opponents, are now 5-0. They got 24 points from Littleford. They shot 40 percent overall, making 19-of-48 shots. They were 3-for-11 from three-point range and 11-for-17 from the foul stripe. They turned the ball over 15 times.
Armstrong led the Lady Hearts with 14 points, 12 of those coming in the second half, and Schaefer added 11, all coming after halftime. Armstrong also pulled down nine rebounds.
Effingham, after shooting an icy 11 percent in the first two quarters, finished at 27 percent, connecting on 15-of-56 attempts. The Lady Hearts were 1-for-10 from long range and 5-of-6 from the free throw line. They turned the ball over 20 times.
The Lady Hearts are now 2-4 overall and 2-3 in league play. They will play two conference road games next week – Monday at Mahomet-Seymour and Thursday at Mt. Zion.
