By Fred Kroner
The Mahomet-Seymour basketball team opened its season in November with an overtime game.
The Bulldogs ended the season on Wednesday (March 2) with another overtime contest.
Unlike the start to the season, the OT game in the Class 3A sectional semifinals at Danville against Decatur MacArthur resulted in a loss, 65-52.
Blake Wolters poured in a game-high 29 points and hit all three of the M-S three-pointers. He also cleared eight rebounds and had three assists.
Dayten Eisenmann and Luke Koller each reached double figures in scoring with 10 points apiece. Ben Wagner notched eight points. Wyatt Bohm added three points and Quenton Rogers bagged both of his free throw attempts.
Bohm pulled down eight rebounds and Koller grabbed seven rebounds. Bohm collected a team-high five assists.
M-S led the majority of the game – after jumping into a 19-10 lead after one quarter – and carried a 41-30 advantage into the final period. With 1 minute and 55 seconds left in regulation, the Bulldogs were still ahead, 51-44.
MacArthur used a late 10-3 spurt to force the extra four-minute session and then scored the first six points of OT, and M-S was unable to regain the lead.
M-S ends the season with a 17-15 overall record.
Six players led or shared the team-lead in scoring during the season. Wolters led in 16 games, Rogers was tops in five games, followed by Eisenmann (four games), Koller (four games), Byron Lynch (three games) and Bohm (two games).
Wolters was the team’s lone double-digit scorer for the season (13.6 average). Other team scoring leaders were Koller (9.1 average), Rogers (8.9 average), Eisenmann (6.8 average) and Bohm (5.5 average).
Wolters registered the most three-pointers with 39. Eisenmann was next with 37. They were followed by Bohm (25), Jake Waldinger (14) and Lynch (13).
Among players with at least 25 free throw attempts, the most accurate shooters were Eisenmann (77.8 percent), Rogers (73.5 percent) and Wolters (70.9 percent).
The Bulldogs’ rebounding leaders were Wolters (6.4 average), Koller (4.6 average), Bohm (4.2 average) and Rogers (3.9 average).
The team’s seniors were Dream Eagle, Nolan Nierenhausen, Jack Rose and Koller.
The Bulldogs finished in a tie for third in the Apollo Conference. Lincoln had an 11-1 league slate and Charleston (8-4) was the runner-up. Tying for third with 6-6 conference records were M-S, Mount Zion and Taylorville. Mattoon was 4-8 and Effingham ended 1-11.
