Hearts Earn Second in Apollo After Friday Win Over Taylorville

The Effingham Hearts earned second place in the Apollo Conference after posting a 68-55 win over the Tornadoes Friday night in Taylorville.

Effingham finished their regular season 17-12, but wound up 8-4 in the Apollo, officially tying Taylorville for second place, but the Hearts beat the Tornadoes home-and-home in head-to-head play. Lincoln won the Apollo title with an 11-1 record. Taylorville handed Lincoln its only conference loss.

Landon Wolfe scored 16 points for the Hearts and, in the process, became Effingham's career boys basketball scoring leader with 2,060 points, 14 more than Mitch Arnold, who scored 2,046 from 1977 to 1980.

Parker Wolfe scored 24 points to lead Effingham in scoring Friday. Nate Thompson scored 15 points and Drew Thompson scored 10 points to give the Hearts four players in double figures. Jacob Stoneburner hit a three-pointer for the Hearts.

Effingham led the contest 11-9 after one quarter and 28-25 at halftime, and then outscored the Tornadoes 25-12 in the third quarter to lead 53-37 heading to the fourth period.

Bergschneider led Taylorville with 21 points.

Effingham begins post-season play tonight at Olney, taking on Mt. Zion at 7:30pm. Hear the game on 979XFM and www.979xfm.com. 

Effingham won the JV game 52-45. Jacob Briggerman led the way for the JV Hearts with 15 points, while Tate Niebrugge scored 13 points and Ben Donsbach added 12 points. Also for Effingham: Max Woelfer 5, Jackson Lee 3, and Dalton Greene and Dylan Ritz 2 each.