TAYLORVILLE, Ill. — The first go-around between Effingham and Taylorville was in early December.
Lady Tornadoes standout Addi Tarr didn’t play in that contest due to an injury.
She made her presence felt on Tuesday night when Taylorville hosted the Flaming Hearts (15-4, 5-1 Apollo Conference). EHS fell to their Apollo foes 55-41. It was the Flaming Hearts first conference loss of the season.
Tarr finished with 10 points but impacted the game elsewhere.
“She can score a lot of different ways and she’s one of the best players in the conference,” said head coach Jeff Schafer of Tarr. “She doesn’t make very many mistakes and takes good shots.”
“We were at a disadvantage with our two bigs being sick,” Schafer continued. “They were pretty lethargic. It was the run-outs that were the difference. They got too many easy baskets. If we wouldn’t have given them the easy baskets, we were right there.”
The Lady Tornadoes led 21-8 at the end of the first quarter.
Junior Alyssa Martin tied the game with a pair of free throws with 4:50 left. She then made a layup to give EHS a 7-5 lead.
Taylorville went on a 14-0 run after that to make it 19-7 before a free throw from senior Sidney Donaldson ended the run.
Senior Bria Beals opened the second quarter with a three-pointer, trimming the Lady Tornadoes lead to 10 points. Tarr then made a midrange jumper to push the lead back to 12.
Beals then hit another three-pointer that made it an eight-point contest with 2:31 left. Tarr hit another midrange shot with 56 seconds left to push the lead back to double-digits.
Beals then hit another three-pointer with 36 seconds to go that sent the Flaming Hearts into halftime down by nine points, 27-18.
EHS scored first to open the third quarter. Taylorville then scored the next four points to take a 31-20 lead with 6:55 left.
“For as poorly as we played, we did very well,” Schafer said. “We came out of half and scored once, but then we gave them two easy baskets, and then we battled back, and they made three plays in a row.”
The Lady Tornadoes outscored the Flaming Hearts 20-7 in the third period. EHS won the fourth period, 14-8.
Senior Mazie Fleming led the team with 16 points.
Junior Baileigh Wernz and senior Kyleigh Heimsness each had eight points. Senior Lia Champley had six. Sophomore Grace Rogers had five and sophomore Gianna Tarr had two.
Martin led the Flaming Hearts with 12 points. Beals had 10. Junior Averie Wolfe had nine. Senior Korina Hecht had five. Seniors Hannah Thompson and Saige Althoff each had two and Donaldson had one.