The Mexico boys have had some great first halves this season but had none better than Tuesday’s at home.

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The Class 4 No. 9 Bulldogs were able to put their North Central Missouri Conference and Highway 54 rival Fulton into a cavernous hole after outscoring the Hornets 53-18 in the first half prior to an 85-49 victory. Having 10 Bulldogs score, including four in double figures, helped Mexico record its biggest 54 Rivalry victory since a 90-41 win in 2013.

Head coach Darren Pappas hasn’t coached the Bulldogs (12-2, 4-0 NCMC) to as big of a victory against the program’s biggest rival as Tuesday’s. Pappas said he hasn’t seen Mexico have as good a first half as it had against Fulton (2-7, 1-3 NCMC), even though he recalls the Bulldogs scoring 50 points against Wellsville-Middletown and 52 against Hazelwood West.

"We were clicking on all cylinders," Pappas said. "Our perimeter shots were falling, we were moving the basketball and we were getting out in transition. We've had pretty good first halves, and we've just got to continue to build on that."

Jaydon Eldridge led Mexico with 20 points, three 3-pointers and two blocks, DJ Long followed with 17 points and seven assists, PJ Perkins had 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Charlie Fisher and Aidan Knipfel led production off the bench with 13 points and nine points, respectively. Fisher had two 3-pointers and two steals, and Knipfel had seven rebounds.

The lead was already around 40 points by the end of the first half, thanks to Mexico jumping head 29-4 after the first quarter. The Bulldogs rained down five 3-pointers in that quarter and knocked some down in quick succession to bury Fulton.

The seemingly endless quick trips in transition started with how Mexico matched up with this new-look Fulton team. In recent years, the Hornets have pushed the Bulldogs to their limit and had several talented players to rely on such as Walker Gohring and Colby Lancaster. Fulton’s lineup this season is more guard-heavy and is led by a returning varsity player Rowdy Gohring, who received most of Mexico’s attention.

“They returned one starter,” Pappas said. “I thought we did a good job of defending him, making him take tough shots and trying to contain the other guys around him as much as possible.”

Eldridge was chief among the Bulldogs that had great starts to the game as he finished the first quarter with 13 points and all of his 3-pointers. He said it was a team effort just to guard Gohring because he is Fulton’s biggest threat by far.

“He was the biggest asset for them going in because he’s been averaging like 25 points per game,” Eldridge said. “We knew if we stopped him, we would have an easy victory.”

The platoon-guarding strategy on Gohring worked, beginning with Long on him and switching around several Bulldogs. Gohring finished the first half with only four points before finding a bit of a rhythm with 10 points and two 3-pointers in the third quarter to finish with a team-high 17 points. Ethan Milius followed with 16 points, and Gabe DeFily had 11 points.

“We were rotating different guys on him and guys were sticking to the game plan, knowing we had to contest his shots because he’s a really good perimeter shooter,” Pappas said. “We know he can get it off the bounce to the rim and sending two guys at him when he got to the rim helped as well.”

Eldridge has been making a bigger difference on the offensive end in recent games, earning a spot along with Long on the US Bank Holiday all-tournament team in Rolla after averaging around 16 points in three games. He was able to showcase his strength from the perimeter but also played with size with his rebounds and blocks.

“I was getting to the basket and getting rebounds, and my shot actually fell tonight, which was pretty surprising,” Eldridge said. “Second-chance points are the easiest points to get, other than going to the free-throw line.”

Pappas said Mexico benefited from playing mostly bench players in the second half because he wants the team to have a “next-man-up mentality,” especially as the playoffs draw closer. Fisher had another solid offensive night, Holden Aulbur picked up four rebounds and three assists from the post, and Knipfel remained steady throughout. 

The points for Knipfel happened after the lopsided first quarter, but he made his presence felt early on with rebounds. Pappas was convinced before that Knipfel can contribute that much and let him know when he exited the game.

“That’s what I told him when he came off the floor, ‘You’ve been holding out on us,’” Pappas said. Finally, everything was clicking. Yeah, he missed some shots, but we try to tell him to stay confident and stay aggressive and he did that in the second half. If he can give us that production on the offensive end, because we know what he brings defensively, he can pick up those minutes whenever PJ needs a break or if PJ gets in foul trouble, we can rotate Aidan in there.”