By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
The Effingham Hearts don’t have much size or varsity experience, but head coach Obie Farmer likes his team.
“They have a real competitive spirit,” Farmer noted. “They seem to find a way to win. That’s what they showed this summer and I liked what I saw.”
The Hearts will put that competitive spirit on display Tuesday night when they open the season at the St. Anthony Thanksgiving Tournament.
Only one starter returns from a squad that finished 10-22 last year. There are three other players back that saw limited playing time.
“This is a very coachable group that understands the game,” said Farmer, who begins his fifth season at EHS and sports a 62-42 overall record. “We can draw up a plan during a timeout and they can go out and execute it. Not every team can do that.
“We’re going to have to play quick because of our lack of size,” Farmer added. “We’re pretty athletic and we’ll have the ability to play more in transition this year. We’ve put a system in place to put us in position to score at all three levels, regardless of our size.”
The tallest player on the varsity roster is listed at 6’4” and the tallest starter will be just 6’3”.
“There’s definitely a lack of size and we’re not very long,” Farmer said. “But we make up for some of that with our quickness and ability to anticipate. We do the right things. We’re just not very big.”
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
The Olney Tigers are a perfect 27-0.
Two of those wins came against Effingham, and in both contests, that unblemished record was challenged.
That was certainly the case Wednesday night.
The Hearts built an early lead and played the Tigers tough to the end before dropping a 55-47 decision in a semifinal game of the Class 3A Olney (Richland County) Regional.
With 4:47 to play in the game, the Hearts had just received back-to-back baskets by Ethan Ritz and Armando Estrada to cut a seven-point deficit to just three, 41-38. And they had two opportunities to get even closer, but had a missed shot and a turnover, and never got closer the rest of the way.
The Tigers got baskets from Zechariah Wease and Ian Winkler to regain the seven-point spread, but Jett Volpi drilled a three to make it 45-41. A bucket by Brayden Pals kept it a four-point margin, 47-43, at the 1:12 mark, but the Tigers then made 8-of-10 free throws in the final 72 seconds to stayed unbeaten and advance to the regional championship game.
“The boys played really hard,” said EHS coach Obie Farmer. “We had a game plan and we executed it very well. We just didn’t hit the shots we had hoped we would. We found open look after open look, but we just couldn’t get them to fall.”
Early on, the shots were falling. Volip broke loose for a layup and then made a three, as the Tigers jumped out to a 5-0 lead. Ritz and Garrett Wolfe both scored four points in the opening quarter, as EHS built a 17-11 edge after the opening eight minutes.
The Hearts then got baskets from Pals and Wolfe to take their largest of the game, 21-13, midway through the second period. But the Tigers closed the first half on a 9-0 run, capped by a bucket by Winkler in the closing seconds, to take a 22-21 advantage to the locker room at halftime.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
To put it simply, the Effingham Lady Hearts “couldn’t buy one.”
From right in front of the basket to behind the three-point line – and everything in-between -- their shots just wouldn’t fall.
Despite a cold shooting night, the Lady Hearts battled to the end. They were within a single possession at one point in the fourth quarter, but couldn’t convert enough on the offensive end.
As a result, the Mt. Vernon Lady Rams escaped with a 43-37 win Friday night to capture the Class 3A Effingham Regional.
‘We got great shots; the kind of shots we were looking for,” said EHS coach Jeff Schafer. “Some were from point blank range. We were possibly one possession away from winning this game. We just couldn’t make shots. I feel awful for these girls.”
So just how bad was the shooting?
At halftime, the Lady Hearts were 2-for-22 from the floor, a frigid nine percent. Yet, they only trailed 7-5 after the opening eight minutes and 16-9 at halftime.
“I told the girls at halftime that I was still very confident in them,” Schafer noted. “They had proven people wrong all year long. I knew they would do everything they could. All we needed to do was shoot the ball better. We held a very good team in the 40s. But our shooting was the difference.”
The Mt. Zion Braves used a strong second-half shooting performance, especially from long range, to pull away and post a 68-49 victory Saturday night on Senior Night at Effingham.
The Braves held a slim 26-24 lead at intermission, but then went 6-for-8 from three-point range to spark a 42-25 scoring surge in the final 16 minutes to secure the win.
Mt. Zion had four three-pointers and Ethan Hamrick added eight points to help the guests go on a 22-11 run in the third period to take control. The Braves then outscored the Hearts 20-14 in the final quarter.
The game was close in the first half. Jeff Volpi connected on a three and scored seven first-quarter points, as the Hearts built a slim 14-12 edge after the first eight minutes. Mt. Zion’s Lyncoln Koester did the exact same thing as Volpi in the second period, helping the Braves take the two-point lead at halftime.
Mt. Zion had three players in double figures – Koester 16, Jack Driscoll 13 and Hamrick 10. The Braves finished their regular season with a 21-6 record overall and 6-6 in the Apollo Conference.
Volpi led the Hearts with 17 points.
Four Seniors – Volpi, Ethan Ritz, Dalton Fox and Brayden Pals – played their final home game at Effingham High School.
The Hearts finished the regular season with a 10-20 overall record and 1-11 in the conference. They will now compete in the Olney (Richland County) Regional. Effingham, seeded No. 8, will face No. 2 Olney at 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Mascoutah (No. 3) and Marion (No. 6) will play at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and the winners of the two games will play at 7 p.m. Friday for the regional championship.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sport Report
It was the type of game you would expect with a conference championship on the line.
Both teams played hard and tough.
Even though the home team led most of the way, the game was in doubt until the final couple minutes.
The Altamont Indians were looking for a share of the National Trail Conference regular season title and came in with confidence. After all, they knocked off St. Anthony in the championship game of the National Trail Conference Tournament, posting a 48-41 win just a couple weeks ago.
But the Bulldogs weren’t in a sharing mood.
They took the lead for good early in the second quarter and maintained a five-to-eight-point spread much of the game. But they could never pull away from the Indians, who battled to the very end.
The Indians were still within seven points with 1:15 to play. But Kyle Stewart made four straight free throws and Adam Rudibaugh broke loose for an uncontested layup in the final 75 seconds, as the Bulldogs took control down the stretch for a hard-earned 53-40 win on Senior Night at The Enlow Center.
That win capped a perfect 8-0 conference season and extended St. Anthony’s winning streak to 32 straight games against NTC teams during the regular season. That’s right. The Bulldogs have now put together four straight seasons without a loss during league play.
“Winning the NTC is huge to us,” St. Anthony coach Cody Rincker said. “The conference tournament is the glamour and it is a fantastic honor to win it.
“But to go undefeated in the regular season, and do so for four straight years, says a lot about our program,” Rincker added. “It speaks volumes about the guys. It shows they have the ability to perform night in and night out, whether at home or on the road. This means a lot to us.”
But it didn’t come easy.
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