Mt. Zion Big Second Half Ends Hearts' Season

There's an old saying: "It's tough to beat a team three times in a season." It sure provided positive momentum for the Mt. Zion Braves.

A huge second half propelled Mt. Zion to a 70-53 win over the Effingham Hearts Friday night. The win gave the Braves the championship of the Mattoon 3A Regional Tournament and ended the Hearts' season. 

The game was heard on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com. 

The Hearts beat Mt. Zion by 15 points at Effingham in December and then downed the Braves in double overtime in February in Mt. Zion with the Hearts outscoring the Braves 13-0 in the second overtime. It was certainly a different outcome Friday night.

Things were positive in the first half as Effingham held the lead for all but a couple of possessions. The Hearts were up 9-6 after the first quarter when neither team shot well.

Effingham outpointed the Braves 15-12 in the second quarter to lead 24-18 at halftime, but the lead was up to 10 a couple of times before Mt. Zion closed the margin just before halftime.

That was a harbinger of things to come.

Mt. Zion was a completely different offensive team in the second half as those patented three-point shots started to drop while the Hearts continued to struggle offensively. The Braves outscored the Hearts 19-9 in the third quarter to lead 37-33 heading to the fourth quarter, then poured in 33 points in the final period to 20 for Effingham and Mt. Zion had the 17-point win.

Hearts Coach Ron Reed said after the game, "Like I told the kids, it was a bad night for us not to put the ball in the hole. We were struggling to finish around the basket. We had a chance to get the lead to 12 but couldn't convert and then the lead got down to six. We had good looks in the second half, but never seemed really in sync."

Effingham tried to make a run, but could never score consistently. Reed said, "I just thought we got down, but made a nice run to get back to within five, but our defense was a little helter-skelter."

Talking about the season, Reed said, "Hopefully, when the kids look back they'll realize what a special year this been. We won the St. Anthony Thanksgiving Tournament. We were within one basket of reaching the final at the Salem Tournament, and beat a Lincoln Way East team that later beat the top-rated team in 4A."

The Hearts won 20 or more games for the fifth straight season, and won the Apollo Conference championship for the fifth straight season.

Effingham made 20 of 66 shots, 30%, including 4 of 25 threes. They made 9 of 12 foul shots, grabbed 35 rebounds and turned the ball over just seven times. Mt. Zion was 7 of 25 in the first half and 0 of 7 on threes. In the second half, the Braves were 17 of 28 including 6 of 7 on threes. They finished 24 of 53, 45%, including 6 of 14 threes, made 16 of 23 foul shots, pulled down 35 rebounds, and turned the ball over 10 times.

Grant Wolfe led the Hearts with 22 points, while Landon Wolfe scored 17 points on 7 of 10 shooting. Brent Beals also was in double figures with 10 points. Also for the Hearts: Jacob Donaldson scored four points.

Charles Kuhle led Mt. Zion with 25 points, while Kevin Cox scored 17 points and Jonah Smith added 16 points.

Mt. Zion improved to 21-9 with the victory and head, ironically, to Effingham for sectional play Wednesday night.

Effingham sees its great season end with a 25-5 record. The Hearts say goodbye to a special group of seniors, including Grant Wolfe, Brent Beals, Jacob Donaldson, Trevor Kreke and Ryan Huelsbusch.