But the following four minutes was all Mahomet-Seymour. After Kayla Koerner drilled a three with 6:03 left in the game, the lead had ballooned to 46-31.
Effingham continued to battle. Meredith Schaefer and Madison Mapes both made three-pointers and Frost scored five more points, but the Lady Hearts were unable to get any closer than 11 points the rest of the way, largely due to the Lady Bulldogs torrid shooting. After not making a single three the first three periods, they made six from behind the arc in the final eight minutes that prevented any chance of a comeback.
“We are doing some things well, but we have to be mentally tougher,” Schafer said. “We play with passion and desire on some possessions, but we need to do that all the time. We just aren’t.”
Early on, the game was tight. In the first half, the score was tied eight times and the lead changed hands on seven occasions. Neither team led by more than two points until the final two minutes of the half.
Armstrong scored 10 of her points in that first half. The Lady Hearts led 12-10 after the first eight minutes and when Mapes scored with 3:02 to play in the second quarter, they were still on top by two points, 20-18.
But Mahomet-Seymour scored the final seven points of the half to take a 25-20 edge into the locker room at intermission.
Koerner paced the Lady Bulldogs with a game-high 23 points.
Armstrong led EHS with 16 points and Frost added 14. Both players also pulled down seven rebounds.
For the game, Effingham shot 38 percent overall, connecting on 18-of-47 attempts. The Lady Hearts were 3-for-16 from long range and 8-for-14 from the foul line. They turned the ball over 20 times, another key factor in the loss.
“We have been right there in almost every game this year,” Schafer noted. “We’re still looking for that little extra to get us over the hump. We haven’t had that show up yet. If we do, we have a chance to be a very good team.”
The Lady Hearts dipped to 2-5 overall and 2-4 in league play. They are scheduled to play Thursday at Mt. Zion.
