Lady Hearts Onto Elite Eight

For the second time in program history, the Effingham Lady Hearts will play in a super-sectional game.

Effingham defeated Charleston 63-54 Thursday night to win the Lincoln 3A Sectional Tournament. The game was heard on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com. 

Effingham, now 31-2, will take on Breese Central Monday night at 7:00 at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Breese Central defeated East St. Louis Senior 45-36 to win the Carbondale 3A Sectional. We will have the game Monday on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com. 

Effingham will be allotted 1,000 tickets for Monday's game. All tickets are $8.00 and all seats are general admission. Sales are going on in the main office at EHS until 3:30pm and will continue on Monday. You can find out more at the UIS athletics website www.uisprairiestars.com. 

As to Thursday's win, the Lady Hearts battled to a 10-10 standoff after one quarter behind junior Natalie Carie, who scored eight of those points. Carsyn Fearday got the other bucket. Carie scored four more in the second quarter, along with three apiece from Aly Armstrong and Abby Weis and two points each from Fearday and Shelby Myers and outscored Charleston 14-9 to lead 24-19 at halftime.

The Lady Hearts outscored Charleston 17-13 in the third period to move ahead 41-32 behind five points from Myers, four each from Fearday and Miranda Fox, and two each from Armstrong and Weis. Fox led with 12 rebounds.

The fourth quarter was a free-scoring period with each team tallying 22 points. Carie scored another five points, Fearday scored seven, Weis scored six, Fox two, and Myers and Skyler Schafer one point apiece. Weis and Fearday made 11 of 12 foul shots in the fourth quarter.

Carie led the way for Effingham with 17 points, while Fearday scored 15 and Weis 11. Also for the Lady Hearts: Myers 8, Fox 6, Armstrong 5, and Schafer 1.

Charleston's great freshman Shae Littleford led the Lady Trojans with 20 points, while Paige Swango added 13 points. Also for Charleston: Hope Griffin 8, Bernie Jackson 5, and Kaitlyn Coffey and Elizabeth Buescher 4 each.

Effingham shot 42% from the field, 18 of 43, including 3 of 17 on threes. The Hearts didn't go the line in the first half, but hit 22 of 27 in the second half, 81%. The Hearts turned the ball over 10 times, none in the fourth quarter, though.

Charleston made 20 of 56 shots, 36%, including 5 of 25 threes. The Lady Trojans made 9 of 12 foul shots, and turned the ball over nine times.

Charleston finishes a great season with a 25-3 record, with all three of those losses to Effingham. Charleston did beat the Lady Hearts to win their Christmas tournament.

Effingham High School will have a fan bus signup sheet for the super-sectional game in the main office at EHS. Students interested in riding the bus will need to sign up to ride between now and the start of school on Monday.

Class 3A Lincoln Sectional

EFFINGHAM (63)

Fearday 4-8 7-8 15, Schafer 0-1 1-2 1, Carie 8-13 0-0 17, Armstrong 2-5 0-0 5, Fox 1-10 4-6 6, Weis 1-6 8-8 11, Myers 3-4 2-3 8. TOTALS 19-47 FG (40.4) 22-27 FT (81.5)

CHARLESTON (54)

Littleford 8-18 3-3 20, Griffin 3-7 2-2 8, Coffey 2-2 0-0 4, Swango 4-15 2-2 13, E. Buescher 1-6 2-5 4, H. Buescher 0-1 0-0 0, Jackson 2-7 0-0 5. TOTALS 20-56 FG (35.7) 9-12 FT (75.0)

Effingham           10    14    17    22    --    63

Charleston          10      9    13    22    --    54

3-point FG -- Effingham 3-19 (Carie 1-3, Armstrong 1-4, Weis 1-6, Fearday 0-2, Schafer 0-1, Fox 0-3), Charleston 5-24 (Littleford 1-6, Griffin 0-2, Swango 3-8, E. Buescher 0-3, H. Buescher 0-1, Jackson 1-4). Rebounds -- Effingham 40 (Fox 12, Fearday 8, Carie 6),  Charleston 30 (Littleford 5, E. Buescher 5).