Hearts Battle to Win on Senior Night; Feb. 7 Basketball Scores

The Effingham Hearts battled all night, finally taking their first lead in the fourth quarter, as they defeated the Taylorville Tornadoes 61-58 to make it a happy Senior Night after all Tuesday night in girls basketball action. 

The game was heard on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com. The game was also videotaped and DVDs and flashdrives will be available later this week.

A rash of turnovers and stone cold shooting put the Hearts in the hole out of the gate. Taylorville, meanwhile, hit plenty of three point shots to take the early lead. The Tornadoes led 15-7 after one quarter and 29-21 at halftime. Effingham finally heated up in the third quarter, scoring 23 points, but Taylorville scored 20 of its own and still led at the end of three quarters 49-44.

Effingham finally took its first lead early in the fourth quarter, but Taylorville took the lead right back and the squads exchanged leads for a few trips before Effingham finally took the lead for good about halfway through the final period. By then, the turnovers had dried up, shots were falling and free throws were made. Effingham outscored the Lady Tornadoes 17-9 in the fourth quarter to post the three-point win.

Effingham shot just 38% from the field, 21 of 56, including 4 of 19 threes. The Hearts made 15 of 27 foul shots, and grabbed 37 rebounds. A key was that after committing seven turnovers in the first quarter, Effingham committed just four more the rest of the ballgame to finish with 11.

Taylorville shot 44% from the field, 20 of 46 including 8 of 23 threes. The Tornadoes made 10 of 14 free throws, turned the ball over 10 times, but grabbed just 24 rebounds.

Miranda Fox, who was scoreless at halftime, finished with 15 points to lead the Lady Hearts and made it a double-double grabbing 10 rebounds. Skyler Schafer came off the bench to score 14 points on six of 10 shooting and pulled down six boards. Aly Armstrong was in double figures with 10 points, Carsyn Fearday and Shelby Myers each scored nine points, and Sidney Webster and Natalie Carie each scored two points.

Natalie Snyder came off the Taylorville bench to lead the Lady Tornadoes with 19 points, while Ellie Tippitt scored 14 points.

The Hearts improved to 23-4 on the season while Taylorville is now 11-16. Effingham closes out its regular season Thursday night at Olney.

Taylorville won the JV game in overtime 46-43. Kiyah Kuhlman led the JV Lady Hearts with 14 points.

Between games, Effingham High School honored Hearts seniors Sidney Webster, Riya Shah, Mikayla Greene and Alexis Damron.

At Effingham

TAYLORVILLE (58)

Pruitt 0-0 -- 0, Althoff 2-1 -- 6, Snyder 6-2 -- 16, Brotherton 1-0 -- 3, Morrison 2-3 -- 5, Tippet 6-0 -- 14, Markwell 1-1 -- 4, Jackson 3-3 -- 10. TOTALS 20 FG, 10 FT.

EFFINGHAM (61)

Fearday 4-1 -- 9, Schafer 6-1 -- 14, Carie 1-0 -- 2, Armstrong 3-1 -- 10, Fox 4-7 -- 15, Webster 1-0 -- 2,  Barr 0-0 -- 0, Myers 2-5 -- 9, Shah 0-0 -- 0, Greene 0-0 -- 0, Damron 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 21 FG, 15 FT.

Taylorville          15    14    20     9    --    58

Effingham            7    14    23    17    --    61

3-point FG -- Taylorville 8 (Althoff 1, Snyder 2, Brotherton 1, Morrison 1, Tippett 2, Markwell 1, Jackson 1), Effingham 4 (Schafer 1, Armstrong 3).

BOYS BASKETBALL

Alton 56, Taylorville 36

Sullivan 55, Shelbyville 50

Salem 71, Flora 33

Terre Haute North 54, Robinson 52

Villa Grove/Broadlands Heritage 63, Oblong 55

Tri-County 63, Palestine/Hutsonville 51

Tuscola 49, Decatur St. Teresa 42