Effingham kept pounding the ball inside to Frost and the sophomore came through. She scored 10 points in the quarter, including eight in the final four minutes, to spark the comeback. Mapes added a basket and then a three-pointer to knot the score at 36-36.

Sawyer Althoff then scored with just 11 seconds left to give the Lady Hearts their first lead of the contest. They took a 38-36 advantage into the final eight minutes.

“After that first quarter, this game had a bad feel to it,” Schafer said. “But they stayed the course. They kept playing.

“And then in that third quarter, we ran an old offense that they ran in junior high,” Schafer added. “We started making a lot of back cuts and the girls got rolling.”

The fourth period was close throughout. Back-to-back baskets by Mattoon’s standout junior, Mallory Ramage, including a three-pointer, gave the Lady Green their final lead of the game at 42-40.

Mapes then scored and Meredith Schaefer added another basket after grabbing an offensive rebound and EHS was on top for good, 44-43, with 3:08 to play.

Three free throws by Mapes extended the margin to 47-43 with 1:11 to go, but Chloe Pruitt scored twice to bring Mattoon to within 48-47.

But within a 10-second span, the Lady Hearts put the game away. Frost broke loose underneath for layup with 29 seconds to play and Mapes secured the victory with another basket 10 seconds later.

“That’s one of the best halves of basketball we played all season,” Schafer said. “We did a better job of taking care of the basketball, shot the ball extremely well and made our free throws to get the win.

“I’m so impressed by how hard they played,” Schafer added. “They didn’t play scared and played to win. And they were rewarded by getting a good win over a good team.”

The Lady Hearts had a balanced scoring attack. Frost led the way with 17 points, with 12 of those coming in the second half when EHS outscored Mattoon 35-23. Mapes scored 13, all in the second half, and Althoff finished with nine. Ramage led all scorers with 21 points for the Lady Green Wave.

Effingham shot real well, especially in that second half. Overall, the Lady Hearts made 21-of-37 attempts, a 57 percent clip. But they were 10-for-11 in the third period and 14-for-19 in the second half, a red hot 74 percent performance. They were 2-for-5 from behind the arc and 7-for-12 from the foul line.

The Lady Hearts finished their season 7-9 overall and 6-8 in the Apollo Conference.

Schafer said goodbye to three seniors – Katie Carie, Taylor Armstrong and Payton Budde – plus Annie Frost, who will be moving to Florida.

 “We had some tough games this year, but these girls are such a pleasure to coach,” Schafer said. “There was virtually no drama with this group. They are very coachable and they just wanted to win. I’m really proud of this team.”