By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
It was quite a night for Nate Thompson.
He equaled his career-high for rebounds, he set a new career-high for points and he became the 14th player at Effingham High School to join the 1,000 Point Club.
And by the way, the Hearts posted their 16th victory of the season, finishing with a 78-65 victory at home over Mattoon on Senior Night.
Thompson entered Friday night’s contest with 974 points – just 26 points away from the coveted achievement. With that game, plus Saturday’s game with Charleston, most figured the 6’6” senior forward had a very good chance to get there.
Thompson, however, decided not to wait and just get the job done.
He had 18 points in the first half, and then with 2:26 to play in the third period, he grabbed a rebound and scored a basket that not only put the Hearts up by double-digits, it gave him 27 points for the game and officially put him over the 1,000-point plateau.
He finished the game with an impressive 36-point, 18-rebound double-double performance.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
For the first time in his long career, Jeff Schafer will end a season with a victory.
Normally, there is a post-season and only the state champions can make that claim.
But don’t forget. We’re in the Season of COVID. So nothing is normal any longer.
The Effingham Lady Hearts put together a tremendous second half Thursday night. They trailed by as many as 10 points late in the second quarter, but torched the nets in the final 16 minutes, knocked down some pressure-packed free throws down the stretch and walked off the floor winners.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Lady Hearts had posted a 51-47 win at home over Mattoon.
“It was awesome and so rewarding,” Schafer admitted. “They played so well as a team tonight. They deserved this win.”
And put together an incredible second half to make it happen.
Effingham trailed 15-7 at the end of the first period and 24-16 at halftime. Madison Mapes and Annie Frost scored and Payton Budde drained a three-pointer to open the third period, but midway through, the Lady Hearts were still down by eight points, 31-23.
But that’s when things started to tighten up.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
As Jeff Schafer was walking to the locker room at halftime, he had a flashback.
He remembered his team from about 15 years ago that set a school record that year with 24 wins.
But when that team faced St. Anthony, the Lady Hearts had a dreadful first quarter shooting the ball.
“We were 1-for-21 at the end of the first quarter and trailed 6-4,” Schafer recalled.
Why would he be thinking about that Tuesday night?
Well, his team had just completed an ice cold shooting performance in the first half.
But since the Lady Bulldogs shot even worse, the Effingham girls still had a lead.
And when the Lady Hearts turned things around and shot the ball extremely well in the second half, they managed to pull away and post a 47-31 decision at home in the annual crosstown rivalry game. It was also Senior Night at EHS.
“When you play those crosstown games, they’re tough on both sides,” Schafer admitted. “We have great kids that do what we ask them to do. We just need to put the ball in the basket more often. But to the girls credit, they just kept playing.”
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
The Effingham Hearts headed to Charleston hoping to clinch at least a share of the Apollo Conference title Tuesday night.
When they headed home, they no longer had to worry about sharing anything. Thanks to losses by Mahomet-Seymour and Mattoon, the Hearts had clinched the league championship.
Effingham fell behind 5-2 early and then exploded. And never let up, en route to a lopsided 77-40 victory over the host Trojans.
“We wanted to make a statement tonight and I think we did that,” said EHS coach Obie Farmer. “We were ready to play.”
By the end of the first period, the Hearts owned a 20-8 lead and didn’t let up. By halftime, the outcome was well in hand. EHS had built a 28-point cushion, 40-12.
Nate Thompson tallied 14 points in the first half and Parker Wolfe knocked down a trio of three-pointers and added 11.
“Charleston got that early lead, but then we started to roll,” Farmer noted. “Parker was lighting it up, but we also got some threes from Garrett (Wolfe) and one from Stonie (Jacob Stoneburner). We shot the ball efficiently and consistently. We moved the ball around, didn’t force things and found open guys.
“We got a lot of run outs for some easy points, too,” Farmer added. “Charleston didn’t get back in transition. We got a lot of points off steals and in our transition game. That’s the style we like. Playing fast plays right into our hands.”
The Effingham Lady Hearts may have been the underdogs Monday night, but they gave undefeated Charleston all it could handle.
The Lady Trojans needed a 15-4 scoring surge in the final quarter to pull ahead and post a 46-33 win at home.
The Lady Hearts jumped out to an early five-point lead, but trailed 16-11 after the opening eight minutes. The EHS defense limited Charleston to only four points in the second quarter and battled back to tie the game, 20-20, at intermission.
The Lady Trojans tried to pull away in the third period, but Effingham refused to cooperate and was still within 31-29 heading into the fourth period.
“We were right there with a little over three minutes to go,” said EHS coach Jeff Shafer. “We just needed to step up and make some plays in crunch time. We held them down in their half-court offense, but gave them too many points off our turnovers.
“This shows you the depth of our conference,” Shafer added. “On any night, anybody can beat anyone. We really battled and were in position to get a win. They are not undefeated by accident, but I thought we could have gotten them tonight.”
Charleston’s Shae Littleford led all scorers with 22 points. Meredith Schaefer led EHS with 11 points and Annie Frost added eight. The Lady Hearts shot 34 percent from the field, connecting on 14-of-41 attempts. They were out-rebounded 33-29.
The Lady Hearts dipped to 5-9 overall and 5-8 in the Apollo Conference. They will play at home tonight (Tuesday) against St. Anthony. It will be Senior Night for the Effingham girls. They will end their season at home Thursday night against Mattoon.
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