Jeff Schafer recently joined former Effingham boys’ basketball head coach James Maxedon at the top of the all-time wins list in Effingham basketball history.
He accomplished the feat after a 65-43 win over crosstown rival St. Anthony on Thursday at Effingham High School. Schafer now has 458 victories to his name.
A pair of underclassmen, in particular, helped him reach that milestone, too.
Sophomore Bria Beals and freshman Alyssa Martin finished in double figures in scoring for the Flaming Hearts (9-2).
Martin did all her work in the first half, scoring 13 points. She had nine points in the second quarter, sparking Effingham to a 12-point lead at the break after a first quarter that saw the contest tied, 14-14.
Beals started the second quarter with a 3-pointer to break the tie, 17-14.
Nancy Ruholl then responded for the Bulldogs with a layup to cut the deficit to one, 17-16, before the Hearts answered with a 9-0 run to make it 25-16 with 3:54 remaining.
Beals and Madison Mapes both made 3-pointers during the run, while Martin added three free throws before Lucy Fearday ended the run with a layup while drawing a foul to make it 26-18. Fearday went on to miss her free throw attempt, though, to leave the score the same.
Then, following the Fearday layup, a personal 6-0 run from Martin would increase the Effingham lead to 14 points, 32-18, before Ruholl made a 3-pointer with 2:13 left to end it.
Mapes then responded with a three-point play opportunity with 1:04 left before Fearday walked into a 3-pointer from the top-of-the-arc that cut the deficit to 10 points, 34-24, with 32 seconds left.
Mapes, however, answered again after making a floater that equaled the halftime score, 36-24.
Mapes finished the game by leading all scorers with 20 points.
What Schafer liked the most about her game, though, was her ability to drive to the lane and pass to open shooters when needed.
“We thought she was the key,” Schafer said. “I thought she did a great job of getting into the lane. She turned it over a couple of times, but you got to get in there and make that kind of stuff happen.”
Beals added 19 points, while Martin had 13.
Saige Althoff had six points, and Ella Niebrugge and Olivia Moser had two.
Averie Wolfe also had three points.
Even though Wolfe’s scoring was off, she made up for it with her decision-making.
Overall, Schafer was very pleased with that from Wolfe and was pleased with his freshmen altogether.
“They have jumped right in and performed at a high level,” Schafer said. “[Alyssa] played very well for us and kept us alive when we got in a little foul trouble, and Averie, her decision-making keeps getting better all the time, and tonight was a little learning curve at times.”
Effingham did all of the above without a key member of the team, as well.
Senior Marissa Allie was out with an illness, leaving Schafer with a different game plan that he wasn’t expecting.
“She’s the glue,” said Schafer of Allie.
“Unless you’re a basketball junkie, you don’t notice Marissa so much because she doesn’t score points. So, not having her made me fearful of playing Alyssa.”
Early on, St. Anthony (10-2) took advantage of that size mismatch, but it didn’t last the entirety of the game.
Fearday finished with 10 points in the first quarter, 15 in the first half, and ended up with 19 for the game.
“They’re not a big team, and I felt with Lucy and [Addi] Nuxoll inside there, we could have opportunities to dominate,” Bulldogs’ head coach Aaron Rios said. “We know Lucy will get double- or triple-teamed every night, and when she did, we didn’t execute. I would say that we came out the worst we have all season. It’s easy to look at the bad things we did, and you try to find the positive things that we try to do from a basketball standpoint, and it’s hard to find that tonight.”
The loss was the second straight for St. Anthony, who dropped a Monday contest to Teutopolis at the Enlow Center.
“It’s a difficult week for us, but the good news for this is that it’s like a playoff week for us, trying to get prepared for where we want to go in the second season,” Rios said. “Not that we’re focused on that today, but that’s where we want to go long term.”