Mahomet-Seymour boys’ basketball picks up three consecutive wins
By Fred Kroner
The Mahomet-Seymour boys’ basketball team concluded a 3-0 week with wins on successive nights.
On Friday (March 5), won at Taylorville, 63-39, and on Saturday (March 6), M-S won at home over Mattoon, 67-55.
When the Bulldogs previously played those opponents, they had beaten Taylorville in overtime and lost to Mattoon by 11 points.
In Friday’s rematch, senior Eli Warren registered team-leading totals of 13 points and five assists.
Quinton McCullough hit 12 points. Braden Finch, Luke Koller and Zach Travis each knocked down nine points.
Koller cleared a team-high 11 rebounds.
The Bulldogs’ defense also did work, yielding only four second-half field goals.
M-S entered the fourth period with a 44-35 lead, but pulled away with Koller (five points) and McCullough (four points) sparking the offense down the stretch.
“Taylorville played hard and we struggled to really open up a lead much bigger than 11 points until the fourth quarter, when we locked down defensively and were able to get some stops,” M-S coach Ryan Bosch said.
McCullough ended with a team-high five steals.
In Saturday’s win, Warren netted a season-high 26 points, the best individual single-game output for the Bulldogs this season.
He nailed a season-high four three-point shots and also sunk 8 of 9 free throws.
Warren had plenty of offensive support from Koller (14 points) and Blake Wolters (12 points).
Finch and Koller led the effort on the boards with nine rebounds each. Koller, a junior, has led (or shared) the team lead in rebounding in nine consecutive games.
M-S trailed, 19-18, after one quarter, but had shot into a 35-24 lead by halftime.
“We had some tough times pulling away from Mattoon, who is having a good season,” Bosch said. “We opened the third quarter extending our lead to 18 before Mattoon chipped away to come back.
“We had to make our free throws down the stretch.”
Finch had six assists and Travis totaled four assists.
M-S (9-3 overall and 8-3 in the Apollo Conference) returns to action on Tuesday (March 9) at Teutopolis before concluding its season with a Senior Night showdown on Friday (March 12) against Charleston.
