By FRED KRONER
In the battle for first place in the Apollo Conference on Friday, visiting Lincoln dealt Mahomet-Seymour its worst loss of the boys’ basketball season, 70-51.
“We got down early and were not able to recover,” M-S head coach Ryan Bosch said. “I thought we could handle their press a little bit better, but we turned the ball over early and often in the first half which allowed Lincoln to score in transition.
“We were relatively effective on the defensive side of the floor in the half-court, but the turnovers were proving to be too much.”
Braden Finch hit a team-high 21 points for M-S to go with four rebounds. Kobe Essien contributed 14 points and five rebounds.
Cole Lener registered an eight-assist, six-rebound and five-steal performance. Grant Coleman had eight points, three steals, two rebounds and two assists.
“Grant struggled much of the game offensively as Lincoln was very physical with him as a part of their game plan,” Bosch said.
Eli Warren also had two assists.
“We were down 15-9 after one quarter and 30-16 at halftime,” Bosch said. “We walked the kids through some things at halftime and we came out of the halftime locker room and were able to score 35 points in the second half.
“Lincoln has averaged allowing 33 points for a game this season, so there were some positives to take out of that. But we were trading baskets as they really took it to us on the other side of the floor.
“We were unable to get stops. We’d expel energy in trying to come back and that just did not allow us to have our best effort on the defensive side of the floor.”
On Saturday morning, M-S returned to action against Crete-Monee in the opening game of the St. Joseph-Ogden Christie Clinic Shootout.
The Bulldogs fell behind early, but pulled within a point in the final 2 ½ minutes before dropping a 47-45 decision.
Coleman hit a team-high 20 points, including a three-pointer with 2 minutes, 21 seconds to play that reduced the M-S deficit to 41-40.
“We were very sluggish and had a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes,” Bosch said. “I give credit to Crete-Monee’s kids for their effort and they deserved to win. We were not very good.”
Crete-Monee led 16-11 after one quarter and 24-19 at halftime.
“We got behind in the first quarter and Crete began holding the ball on us running clock off,” Bosch said. “We were unsuccessful on converting our opportunities when we got them.
“We missed a lot of makeable layups and were uncharacteristically bad at the free throw line (4 for 11 overall).”
Essien had nine points and seven rebounds. Warren ended with six points and four assists. Lener contributed seven assists, five rebounds and four steals.
Five of the Bulldogs’ losses have been by no more than eight points.
M-S (8-8) returns to action on Tuesday at Mattoon. The Bulldogs are 4-1 in Apollo Conference contests.
“Hopefully we can get rested up and return to playing like the team we’ve shown ourselves capable of being,” Bosch said.
