The Effingham Flaming Hearts's road trip will continue as they head out to face the Dieterich Movin Maroons at 7:30 p.m. on January 16th. Effingham will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Illinois Rankings (they are ranked 594th, while Dieterich is ranked 245th).
Effingham suffered their biggest loss since December 14, 2023 on Thursday. Their rough 67-46 loss to Taylorville might stick with them for a while.
Meanwhile, Dieterich strolled past Farina South Central with points to spare on Friday, taking the game 54-38. The victory made it back-to-back wins for Dieterich.
Caleb Gephart continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 27 points along with nine rebounds and two steals. He is on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last three games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Lucas Westendorf, who scored eight points along with ten rebounds and two steals.
Effingham bumped their record down to 2-18 with that defeat, which was their 12th straight on the road dating back to last season. As for Dieterich, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 13-5 record this season.
Effingham beat Dieterich 54-46 in their previous meeting back in January of 2023. The rematch might be a little tougher for Effingham since the team won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
