Meredith Schaefer pumped in 12 first-quarter points, the Effingham Lady Hearts built a big early lead and then rolled to a 62-16 win over Newton in an opening-round game of the Bob Kerans Thanksgiving Tournament in Newton.

Schaefer knocked down a pair of three-pointers and Ella Niebrugge added another, helping the Lady Hearts race to a 23-2 lead after the opening eight minutes. Effingham then outscored the Lady Eagles 15-6 in the second quarter to take a comfortable 38-8 advantage to the locker room at halftime.

Effingham extended its lead to 57-13 after three quarters and costed to the 46-point decision.

Schaefer finished with a game-high 18 points and Niebrugge, who finished with three baskets from long range, added 12.

The Lady Hearts, now 2-0 on the young season, will return to tournament action today (Tuesday). They will face Vandalia at 6 p.m. Effingham will also play Wednesday, facing Flora at 6:30 p.m.

The Apollo Conference has released its boys all-conference basketball team for the 2021 season.

Effingham’s Parker Wolfe and Nate Thompson, and T-Town’s Evan Wermert were among the six players selected to the first team.

The Hearts’ Jacob Stoneburner was selected to the second team as was Jordan Hardiek, from Teutopolis.

Wolfe averaged a team-high 25.8 points and 5 rebounds per game for Effingham. He had 38 assists and led the team with 63 steals. He shot 45.6 percent overall, making 146 of 320 shots. He shot 78 percent from the foul line, making 87-of-112 attempts.

Thompson averaged 20.1 points per game and led the team in rebounding, pulling down 154, an average of 9.12 per game. He had 25 assists and 29 steals. He made 128-of-248 total shots, a 51.6 percent clip, which was tops on the team. He also was the team’s best free throw shooter, making 72-of-90 attempts, an 80 percent clip.

Wermert also had an impressive year for the Wooden Shoes. He averaged a team-high 19.8 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. He had 55 assists and 30 steals. He shot 55 percent overall, making 142-of-256 attempts. That included shooting 48 percent from three-point range, making 50-of-105 attempts. He also shot 86 percent from the foul line, making 42-of-49.

Stoneburner led Effingham with 50 assists and shot a team-high 69.4 percent from two-point range during the season. He averaged 6.8 points and 6.3 rebounds. Overall, he made 48-of-99 attempts, a 48.5 percent clip. From two-point range, he made 34-of-49 shots. He also had 21 steals.

Hardiek averaged 12.5 points per game for T-Town. He led the team with 51 three-pointers for the season. Overall, he shot 43 percent for the season, making 83-of-193 attempts. That included going 51-for-133 from behind the arc. He shot 77 percent from the free throw line, making 20-of-26 foul shots. He also had 35 assists and averaged 3.2 rebounds per game.

Here is the complete list of the All-Apollo Boys Basketball Team.

First Team – Parker Wolfe (Effingham); Nate Thompson (Effingham); Evan Wermert (Teutopolis); Dylan Singleton (Lincoln); Landon Hullinger (Lincoln); and Eli Warren (Mahomet-Seymour)

Second Team – Jacob Stoneburner (Effingham); Jordan Hardiek (Teutopolis); Cam’ron Thomas (Mattoon); and Wyatt Shirley (Taylorville)

By Steve Raymond

ET Sports Report

When the Effingham Lady Hearts take the floor to open their 2021-22 basketball season, they will do so without their two leading scorers from a year ago.

Annie Frost moved to Florida and Taylor Armstrong is now playing at Millikin University.

But veteran coach Jeff Schafer is still excited about the season ahead.

“This is my kind of team,” he said.

Together, Frost, an all-conference selection, and Armstrong combined to average 20 points a game – points this year’s squad will need to replace.

“When you lose players like that, you’re always afraid your team will go backwards. But that’s not happening here,” Schafer noted. “Yes, we will have to learn to play without our leading scorers. And, yes, I thought scoring points might be a problem.

“But I don’t think that will be the case,” Schafer added. “We didn’t have any trouble scoring points this summer. The girls stepped up and scored well. I guess we’ll just have to see how we do when the season gets going.”

Schafer has encountered just about every scenario possible during his coaching career. He is entering his 24^th season as the EHS head coach and has amassed 428 wins during that time. But he never experienced anything like last year.

Thanks to COVID, that was a different experience altogether. The Lady Hearts played a shortened season in gyms that were virtually empty – all while wearing masks.

“There was definitely a lack of excitement in the gyms,” Shafer recalled. “You had to create all the energy from your own team’s bench. Hopefully, we won’t have to go through that again. I think we’re all looking forward to a more normal season this year.”

Right now, he likes what he’s seeing from this year’s team.

“They have great cohesiveness and chemistry. This is a very close-knit group,” Schafer said. “And that all started forming last year. I think they learned not to take anything for granted.”

Speed and athleticism describe many of this year’s Lady Hearts. Effingham also figures to be a good passing team with balanced scoring.

“I will never have to worry about them playing hard or sharing the ball,” Schafer noted. “Everybody just seemed to take a progressive step forward since last year.”

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By Steve Raymond

ET Sports Report

It wasn’t pretty and it certainly was much closer than anybody had anticipated.

Especially the first half.

But like Coach Obie Farmer said after the game -- “Once the Effingham Hearts became the Effingham Hearts, we took care of business.”

And that transformation took place early in the second half.

After beating Charleston by 37 points just five days earlier, the Hearts found themselves trailing by four points, 42-38, just seven seconds into the third period.

That’s when Farmer had his team start applying full-court pressure.

And that coincides exactly to when the game changed.

The Hearts started swarming the Trojans on defense, forcing turnovers and converting at the offensive end. That pressure was the spark the team needed and they responded by going on a 17-0 scoring run.

Charleston never gave up, but Effingham’s firepower was too much and the Hearts finished off their incredibly successful season with a 79-59 victory at home Saturday afternoon.

“We were down four and then we were up 13,” Farmer said. “Part of our problem was we just didn’t seem to have any energy. But once we started to press, we found that energy, took Charleston out of their rhythm and started to roll.”

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