Effingham Edges St. Anthony 37-35 in Girls Hoops

It truly was anybody's ballgame as Effingham defeated St. Anthony 37-35 Saturday in a battle of the city's two girls basketball squads.

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

Effingham got out of the gate 7-2 in the first few minutes, but St. Anthony's good play and cold shooting by Effingham enabled the Bulldogs to score the last 11 points of the first quarter to lead 13-7. The Bulldogs outscored the Hearts 11-10 in the second period to lead 24-17 at halftime.

The third quarter was the difference, though, as Effingham finally started to get the lid off the basket, while St. Anthony endured a cold streak of their own. Effingham outscored the Bulldogs 12-3 in the quarter to take a 29-27 lead after three quarters. A back-and-forth fourth quarter followed with each team scoring eight points. With 1.1 seconds left and the Hearts leading 36-35, Effingham's Sidney Webster was fouled. The senior made the first foul shot and then purposely missed the second attempt with the ball hitting the rim. That meant St. Anthony, with no timeouts left, had to grab the rebound and try to get a shot away, which they did, but it fell well short and the Hearts had claimed the win.

Effingham's Miranda Fox led all scorers with 10 points. Also for Effingham, Carsyn Fearday 8, Bria Barr 6, Sidney Webster 4, Aly Armstrong 3, Shelby Myers 2, Natalie Carie 2 and Skyler Schafer 2.

Abby Weis and Meg Richards shared scoring honors for St. Anthony with 7 each. Also for the Bulldogs: Olivia Clausius 6, Abbie Schmidt 4, Clare McHugh 4, Keri McGuire 3, Sydney Gibson 2 and Shea Kinkelaar 2.

Effingham hit on 37% of its shots, 14 of 38 including 2 of 9 threes. Effingham made just 7 of 18 foul shots, but only turned the ball over nine times. St. Anthony was 38% from the field, 11 of 29, including 2 of 4 threes. The Bulldogs made 11 of 18 foul shots and turned the ball over just eight times. Effingham outrebounded St. Anthony 26-20.

Effingham is still undefeated on the season at 7-0, while St. Anthony is now 6-3.

St. Anthony won the JV game 32-28. Herboth for Effingham led all scorers with 12 points, while Beesley and Saba each scored 7 for St. Anthony.