Lady Hearts Open Season w/Overtime Win

The Effingham Lady Hearts made their season opener memorable, winning at Pana 53-52 in overtime Tuesday night.

Pana led the contest 11-9 after the first quarter, but EHS came back to lead 21-17 at halftime.  A 16-16 third quarter standoff left Effingham ahead 37-33, but Pana outscored the Lady Hearts 13-9 in the fourth quarter to force the overtime.  Effingham outscored Pana 7-6 in the extra stanza to post the win.

Effingham Coach Jeff Schafer said, "This was a really ugly game for us but, to our girls' credit, we found a way to win.  Both teams struggled."

The Lady Hearts' Josie Zerrusen led all scorers with 17 points including two three-pointers and five of eight shooting at the line.  Schafer said, "Josie hit some really big shots for us in the second half."

Effingham's Caitlin Kaufman had 16 points including two three-pointers.  Schafer said, "Caitlin had 16 points and I have no idea how, but that's what seniors are supposed to do."

As for other contributors, Schafer said, "Felicia Totten played an incredible game; she made all the routine hustle plays and held their leading scorer to four points when she was guarding her; she got five off of our zone.  Our bench did a nice job as well as Marranda Steffen and Taylor Crowell had some huge minutes."

Schafer was reflective about the win; "The best thing I can say about this game is we won.  Pana plays hard; they made us make mistakes, as we did to them."

The Lady Hearts' next action will be next Tuesday at the Bob Kerans Thanksgiving Tournament in Newton, taking on Flora at 6pm.

Pana won the JV game 26-25.

Scoring for Effingham: Josie Zerrusen 17, Caitlin Kaufman 16, Jantzen Michael 6, Felicia Totten 6, Lauren Stephenson 4, Marranda Steffen 4