Strong Mahomet-Seymour Junior High Girls’ Basketball Season comes to end
By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Mahomet-Seymour’s eighth-grade girls’ basketball team ended the season with a narrow loss to Urbana on Tuesday in an IESA Class 4A regional semifinal game.
The third-seeded Bulldogs (15-8) opened postseason play on Monday at Urbana Middle School with a 41-6 victory over Danville North Ridge.
Claire Seal and Sidney Young each scored 14 points for M-S against North Ridge.
On Tuesday, against an opponent it lost to by nine points in the regular season, M-S suffered a 19-17 loss to second-seeded Urbana.
Seal led the way with seven points and was 3-for-3 from the free throw line.
“After giving up 41 points to Urbana in the regular season, the team did a great job keeping the pace down and the score low with a strong team defensive effort,” M-S coach Jimmy Lanphear said. “It was close the entire game, but a few things didn’t bounce our way.”
In its two-year junior high career, the current eighth-grade class had a cumulative record of 32-17.
Mahomet-Seymour Junior High Seventh-grade girls’ basketball
The Bulldogs were unable to complete their comeback bid and dropped a 23-18 decision to Effingham in a Class 4A IESA sectional championship game on Wednesday at Effingham.
Grace Binkley led M-S with five points. Kylie Waldinger scored four points.
M-S (21-3) had a 16-game winning streak snapped and fell one win short of a berth in the state tournament.
The Bulldogs trailed 12-4 after one quarter, but fought back to gain a second-half lead.
“Our defense played extremely well, but we unfortunately weren’t able to have a strong enough fourth quarter to pull out the victory,” Lanphear said.
In the regional finals, the Bulldogs posted a six-point win in OT.
For the 24-game season, M-S outscored its opponents by an average of 35-15 per game.
Effingham (17-3) qualifies for a state quarterfinal game on Saturday at Bolingbrook.
