Mahomet-Seymour wins Class 3A Regional Championship

By Fred Kroner

It wasn’t as easy as 1-2-3.

It wasn’t easy at all.

For the second time in the last 28 years, the Mahomet-Seymour boys’ basketball team has captured back-to-back Class 3A IHSA regional championships.

The most recent title came on Friday (Feb. 24) and it came on the fourth attempt to defeat Apollo Conference rival Lincoln this season.

The Bulldogs rallied – and then survived a potential game-winning shot by the Railsplitters at the final buzzer – to pull out a 35-33 victory at Champaign Central’s Combes Gym.

“This was as sweet of a victory as we’ve had this year and maybe in my time at M-S,” fifth-year Bulldog head coach Ryan Bosch said.

The Bulldogs have a sub-.500 season record (14-16), but have won six of their eight games played since Feb. 2.

“I’ve seen flashes throughout the year,” Bosch said, “but we’ve had some rough stretches and were flying under the radar.

“We’ve had to regroup, and our kids have started to bond. Since (late January), we’ve played some great basketball and competed the right way. We’ve been a bit of a different team.”

Senior Wyatt Bohm was instrumental in the regional title-game victory. He scored a game-high 11 points and led the Bulldogs with six rebounds and five assists.

He was also asked to take a prominent role defensively, and played all 32 minutes.

“My staff came up with some defensive adjustments and we changed our matchups,” Bosch said. “We put (the 6-foot-5) Bohm on their point guard.

“With his length, he was able to take some stuff away and slow them down. They were not able to get what they wanted to do offensively.”

M-S fell behind, 6-2, after one quarter and trailed, 16-12, at halftime. The Bulldogs never led until the final 3 minutes of the third period.

In the fourth period, a pass from Bohm to Finn Randolph led to a basket and the last of six lead changes in the game. Randolph’s layup lifted M-S into a 33-32 lead.

Dayten Eisenmann and Randolph each dropped six points for the Bulldogs. Trey Peters contributed five points and grabbed four rebounds. Randolph totaled two steals.

In a season where 12 different Bulldogs have scored points or captured rebounds, just three have played in all 30 of the team’s games (Eisenmann, Adam Dyer and Carter Selk).

M-S’ 2022 regional crown also came against Lincoln in the finals.

The Bulldogs will return to action on Tuesday (Feb. 28) at Decatur MacArthur against the host team (28-4) at 7 p.m. in a sectional semifinal game. The winner will be one of the state’s final 16 teams in Class 3A.

“They’re having a special season,” Bosch said. “It should be a great test for us.”