Hearts Win Charleston Holiday Girls Championship, St. A Fourth at Mattoon

CHARLESTON -- Effingham High School came up big Thursday with two victories to capture the championship of the Charleston Holiday Girls Basketball Tournament.

The Hearts claimed a 66-40 win over Rantoul in the morning session that pushed them into the championship game later in the day.

EHS stepped out to a 21-9 opening quarter lead and never looked back, outscoring Rantoul 23-5 in the third period.

Carsyn Fearday tallied 18 points for the Hearts while Natalie Carie chipped in with 11 and Aly Armstrong added 11. Fearday and Armstrong connected on three trifectas in the game.

In the championship game against Charleston, the Hearts edged out to a 14-6 opening quarter lead and led 25-19 at halftime.

EHS came back with a 17-6 third period then had to hold off a charging Charleston in the final quarter.

"The Apollo was well represented today in the finals at Charleston," said EHS Coach Jeff Schafer. "We got out of the gate great, jumping out to an eight point lead. Charleston made a run and then we came back and had a great third quarter and led by as many as 17.

"We just had a great tournament. We got contributions from everyone. Our defense was solid all tournament. Carsyn had a great tournament and earned Most Valuable Player honors. Shelby played great the first two days, really getting more involved and also earned All-Tournament team honors.  She was awesome and her teammates really found her the last two days.

"We did an excellent job rebounding. We turned it over a little more than we had lately and that may have something to do with playing at 9 in the morning. I am just really proud of all of their efforts. It was a great way to end the year and we will get a few days off andstart preparing for next week."

The Hearts stand at 14-1 on the season while Charleston dropped to 13-4.

In other games, Urbana downed Decatur Eisenhower 68-47, Canton won over Centennial 51-45 and Pekin downed Danville 71-54.

Danville then nabbed the fifth place game 74-46 over Urbana. Paris downed Pekin for third place, 60-44.

At Charleston

Game 17

EFFINGHAM (66)

Fearday 5-5 -- 18, Schafer 1-1 -- 3, Carie 3-4 -- 11, Armstrong 4-0 -- 11, Fox 3-3 -- 9, Webster 0-0 -- 0, Barr 2-1 -- 5, Myers 3-1 -- 7, Shah 0-0 -- 0, Greene 0-0 -- 0, Buscher 0-0 -- 0, Cordes 1-0 -- 2, Damron 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 22 FG, 15 FT.

RANTOUL (40)

Espinoza 1-1 -- 3, Brandon 0-2 -- 2, Johnson 2-0 -- 5, Spinks 1-3 -- 5, Sutherland 2-0 -- 6, Dunner 1-0 -- 3, Wilson 2-1 -- 5, K. Williams 2-1 -- 7, M. Williams 2-0 -- 4. TOTALS 13 FG, 8 FT.

Effingham            21    20    23     2    --    66

Rantoul                 9    15     5    11    --    40

3-point FG -- Effingham 7 (Fearday 3, Armstrong 3, Carie 1), Rantoul 6 (Sutherland 2, K. Williams 2, Dunner 1, Johnson 1).

Championship Game

EFFINGHAM (59)

Fearday 5-12 -- 25, Schafer 0-0 -- 0, Carie 2-0 -- 5, Fox 3-0 -- 6, Myers 5-0 -- 11, Webster 0-0 -- 0, Barr 2-0 -- 4, Armstrong 2-2 -- 8. TOTALS 19 FG, 14 FT.

CHARLESTON (52)

Crowder 0-0 -- 0, Flight 0-0 -- 0, J. Griffin 0-0 -- 0, Parish 4-2 -- 10, L. Chappell 0-0 -- 0, H. Griffin 5-1 -- 13, Coffey 1-0 -- 2, swango 4-2 -- 14, Buescher 0-0 -- 0, O'Dell 2-2 -- 6, Littleford 0-0 -- 0, Crites 0-0 -- 0, Jackson 3-0 -- 7. TOTALS 19 FG, 7 FT.

Effingham            14    11    17    17    --    59

Charleston            6    13      6    27    --    52

3-point FG -- Effingham 7 (Fearday 3, Armstrong 2, Carie 1, Myers 1), Charleston 7 (Swango 4, H. Griffin 2, Jackson 1).

Mattoon Tournament

Effingham St. Anthony finished fourth in the Mattoon Holiday Tournament with a 41-31 loss to Salem Thursday.

The Bulldogs held a 9-6 opening quarter lead and led by that same three-point margin at halftime, 17-14. But the Wildcats came back with a 16-10 third period and outscored the Bulldogs 11-4 in the final quarter.

Abby Weis led the Bulldogs with 15 points. Weis was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Mattoon won the championship, beating Galesburg 45-40. Fifth place went to Oleny over Vandalia 44-35. Sullivan won the seventh place game over Decatur MacArthur 56-34.

At Mattoon

ST. ANTHONY (31)

Schmidt 0-2 -- 2,  Weis 5-4 -- 15, McHugh 2-0 -- 4, Gibson 2-2 -- 6, Richards 1-1 -- 3, Clausius 0-1 -- 1, McGuire 0-0 -- 0. TOTALS 10 FG, 10 FT.

SALEM (41)

Guerin 6-2 -- 18, Sager 1-0 -- 2, Marshall 0-1 -- 1, Maxey 2-2 -- 6, Quandt 0-0 -- 0, Wade 0-2 -- 2, Meadows 2-6 -- 10, Gillett 1-0 -- 2. TOTALS 12 FG, 13 FT.

St. Anthony            9    8    10      4    --    31

Salem                     6    8    16    11    --    41

3-point FG -- St. Anthony 1 (Weis 1), Salem 4 (Guerin 4).