Hearts Open Basketball Season in Style w/Win Over Vandalia

The Effingham Hearts opened the high school basketball season in style Saturday evening with an 87-38 win over the Vandalia Vandals. The game was heard on KJ Country 102.3 and www.kjcountry.com. 

Effingham and Vandalia were scheduled to play the game on the original schedule from last fall, so when both teams got their seven practices in, they decided to go ahead and play the game.

Effingham's offense was in high gear, scoring 20 or more points in each quarter. The Hearts led 20-5 after the first quarter, extended the lead to 47-16 at halftime, and were up 67-33 after three quarters before outpointing the Vandals 20-5 in the fourth quarter.

Effingham made 48% of its shots, 33 for 69, including 10 of 31 threes. The Hearts made 11 of 14 free throws for 79%, and turned the ball over 11 times. 

Vandalia shot 26% from the field, 14 of 54, including 3 of 22 threes. The Vandals were nine of 13 from the foul line for 69%, and committed 12 turnovers.

Effingham had a whopping 46-22 edge in rebounds.

Effingham had two players with double-doubles. Nate Thompson led all scorers with 31 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Parker Wolfe scored 26 points and had 12 boards. Also for Effingham, Jacob Stoneburner had seven points and eight rebounds. Garrett Wolfe scored five points, and Brayden Pals scored three points, but had six rebounds and maybe that many blocked shots. Also scoring for Effingham: Jett Volpi 3, Dalton Fox 3, Jakob Logan 2, Logan Heil 2, Armando Estrada 3, and Thad Dillow 2.

Case Goldsmith was in double figures for Vandalia with 14 points. 

Effingham got a win in a good close JV game, 54-51.

The Hearts begin Apollo Conference action Tuesday night at Mattoon.