By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
The final outcome was pretty much a foregone conclusion.
The Effingham Hearts simply hadn’t played well and had shot even worse. And as the clock ticked under four minutes, they found themselves trailing by 10 points.
But as baseball legend Yogi Berra once said – “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
This tired bunch of Hearts refused to quit and somehow found the energy to stage a remarkable comeback.
They went on a 15-0 scoring run and knocked down 15-of-17 free throws in the final minutes to rally for a 64-58 victory over Mattoon Saturday night to finish 3-1 overall and capture third place in the St. Anthony Thanksgiving Tournament.
“Our legs were dead, but I still challenged them to never give up and never quit playing,” said EHS coach Obie Farmer. “I also challenged their effort and intensity, which I don’t think they liked hearing. But they responded by going out, playing hard and picking it up.”
The rally began when Nate Thompson made a pair of free throws to make it 53-45 with 3:44 to play. But after watching the game up to that point, nobody in The Enlow Center expected what was to follow.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
Making the right pass and taking a good shot.
Being in the right position on both offense and defense.
And doing these things play after play.
That’s what Effingham coach Jeff Schafer is trying to teach and instill in his girls basketball team.
But it was the inconsistency of those things that made the difference Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Hearts battled back from a 10-point deficit, but just couldn’t make enough plays at the end, and the result was a 42-40 setback to Newton on the final day of the Bob Kerans Thanksgiving Tournament in Newton.
EHS finished tourney play 2-2.
“This is a game we should have won,” Schafer said. “It came down to the little things. We missed free throws and we didn’t adapt to the way the game was being called. Plus, we wasted seven or eight possessions because we weren’t organized against the press. You have to do the right thing and be in the right position all the time.”
The Effingham Lady Hearts notched their second tournament win Wednesday night, but for the second day in a row, had to rally to do so.
The Lady Hearts trailed 23-18 at halftime, but then outscored Vandalia 26-19 in the second half to post a narrow 44-42 victory and improve to 2-1 in the Bob Kerans Thanksgiving Tournament in Netwton.
Effingham went on a 14-6 surge in the third period to take 32-29 lead.
“And, somehow, we battled and found a way to win,” said EHS coach Jeff Schafer.
Hayley Diveley led the EHS scoring attack with 14 points and Taylor Armstrong added 12.
The Lady Hearts will complete their tournament play Friday with a 1:30 p.m. game against Newton.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
Having a player record a double-double in a game is a fairly common occurrence in basketball.
But two players on the same team in the same game?
That’s not common.
But that’s exactly what Nate Thompson and Parker Wolfe accomplished Wednesday night, helping the Effingham Hearts post a 71-45 blowout victory over Tolono Unity in a second-round game of the St. Anthony Thanksgiving Tournament.
Nate Thompson pumped in 26 points, while Wolfe added 17. And both players grabbed 11 rebounds, as the Hearts improved to 2-0 ahead of Friday night’s showdown with the host Bulldogs.
By Steve Raymond
ET Sports Report
Who says football players can’t quickly transition from the gridiron to the basketball court?
The Effingham Hearts, with three members of their record-setting football squad in the starting lineup, proved it can be done.
The Hearts never trailed, built a double-digit lead in the first eight minutes and rolled to a 73-38 victory over Highland in the second of three games Tuesday night at the St. Anthony Thanksgiving Tournament.
And they accomplished that after just one practice.
“I’ve never had a team start the season after just one practice, but that’s all we had,” said EHS coach Obie Farmer, who was also an assistant coach for the EHS football team that just saw its season come to a close Saturday in the semifinals of the Class 4A Playoffs.
“We put in a couple offenses pretty quickly; just basic stuff,” Farmer noted. “We have some guys returning that know the system, which helps. But for this week, we’re just going to let the kids be athletes; be basketball players. We’ll start working on things in more detail next week.”
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