Lady Hearts Remain Unbeaten w/Two Wins at Charleston Tourney; Other Scores at Charleston

The Effingham Lady Hearts improved to 11-0 on the season Thursday morning with a 45-24 win over the Paris Lady Tigers in the opening game of the 2013 Charleston Holiday Tournament followed by a 56-40 victory over Decatur Eisenhower Thursday evening.

The first game got off to a slow start with Effingham in front 4-2 after one quarter.  Lady Hearts Coach Jeff Schafer said, "The first five minutes looked like a 9:00 game on the day after Christmas.  The positive thing is it was still 2-2 since we played good defense.  Then, we made a few adjustments and played much better."

The Lady Hearts kicked it into gear offensively in the second quarter, outscoring Paris 21-9 to lead 25-11 at halftime.  After an 8-8 third quarter to make it 33-19, the Lady Hearts outscored Paris 12-5 in the final period to account for the 21-point win.

Schafer said, "We got to see a triangle and two (defense), so that will do nothing but help us later on."

Josie Zerrusen led Effingham with 22 points including three three-point baskets.  Schafer said, "Josie had the quietest 22 points I have ever seen."  He said, "I thought Jantzen (Michael) and Lauren (Stephenson) played a big part in that second quarter and did a nice job of finding Josie."  Michael was also in double figures with 10 points while Stephenson added four points.

Effingham's Caitlin Kaufman was one of the players involved in the triangle and two defense and was held to one three-point basket.  Schafer said, "Caitlin was hounded the whole game, but did a nice job defensively and led us in rebounds."

The Lady Hearts were hampered by the illness of inside threat Stephanie Robb.  Schafer said, "Stephanie was not feeling well and hopefully will be able to play more (in the Hearts' game Thursday afternoon)".  

Also for Effingham, Maddy Field scored four points and Brittany Beals added two points.

In the second contest, Effingham recovered after a slow start, trailing 13-11 after one quarter. The Lady Hearts outscored Eisenhower 17-7 in the second quarter and led 28-20 at halftime.  After a 12-12 third quarter, the Lady Hearts outpointed Eisenhower 16-8 in the fourth quarter to win by 16.

Schafer said, "We recovered after a slow start.  We gave Eisenhower too many runouts off of our misses.  When we got them more in a half-court game, we started to play much better.  We got some easy baskets off of some offensive rebounds and some hustle plays."

Schafer singled out Lauren Stephenson, who came off the bench to lead Effingham with 15 points. He said, "Lauren had a great game for us, she was a real spark offensively for us and did a nice job with her decision-making."  He added, "Our seniors really stepped up and the bench was there when we needed them; it was another good team win."

The Lady Hearts are back in action Friday at 10:30am against Chicago Orr.

Other Thursday scores at Charleston:

Decatur Eisenhower 74, Chicago Orr 43

Taylorville 51, Rantoul 19

Charleston 53, Urbana 33

Paris 57, Chicago Orr 25

Taylorville 59, Urbana 14

Charleston 63, Rantoul 49