By Fred Kroner
Against an opponent it had lost to twice in the regular season, Mahomet-Seymour’s boys’ basketball team staged a furious late-game rally at home on Friday to annex a Class 3A regional championship trophy against Lincoln, 31-28.
The visiting Railsplitters – who owned a 14-point win over M-S – went up 25-19 when they scored the first two points of the final quarter.
During the remaining seven minutes, the Bulldogs allowed just three points and successfully completed the comeback.
Blake Wolters hit a game-high 12 points for the Bulldogs. Luke Koller reached double figures with 10 points and hauled down a game-high eight rebounds. Six of his boards came on the offensive end.
Dayten Eisenmann contributed five points and two assists while teammate Wyatt Bohm chipped in with seven rebounds and a game-high three assists.
Wolters drained his second three-pointer of the game – following a steal – to lift M-S into the lead for good.
M-S led, 9-4, after one quarter, but trailed at halftime, 13-11.
Lincoln broke an 11-all deadlock with a putback just before the halftime buzzer.
“We specifically challenged Wyatt Bohm and Luke Koller and their second-half response could not have been any better down the stretch,” M-S coach Ryan Bosch said.
The Bulldogs limited Lincoln to 2-for-16 accuracy from three-point range and 33 percent overall (10-for-30) from the field.
“The defensive performance by our kids, specifically Ben Wagner and Dayten Eisenmann, was just phenomenal,” Bosch added. “Lincoln is obviously a well-coached team and has the ability to really make you pay.
“Our kids stuck to the game plan and were able to make enough plays to win the game.”
The Bulldogs (17-14) return to action on Wednesday (March 2) at the Danville Sectional against Decatur MacArthur.
The regional crown was the school’s first in boys’ basketball since 2018 and the fourth in the last seven years that the IHSA has conducted a postseason tournament.
