Mexico girls basketball has to figure out what it is in 2022.

The Lady Bulldogs were a solid rebounding team from girls such as Mya Miller and Riley Thurman but will rely on others this year to step up.

Head coach Ed Costley has led Mexico to three straight winning seasons, with last year’s campaign of 16-10 being the lowest win total. The Lady Bulldogs lost all three North Central Missouri Conference players in Miller, Thurman and Taylor DeMint to graduation, but several players graduated to bigger roles this season, including senior point guard Lexie Willer and sophomore guard Claire Hudson.

“Claire and Lexie are probably our true outside precision shooters,” Costley said. “Lexie and Claire also kind of bounced back and forth (for the third-leading scorer). They both averaged right around five or six points.”

While Mexico lost about 21 rebounds per game from last year, there seems to be more skill this year when it comes to passing.

“McKenzie Taylor’s a sophomore and a really good passer as a post player,” Costley said. “I think we’ll have more floor spacing. I think the floor spacing will come just because of their nature is more ball handlers and more 3-point shooters on the floor.

“I think we’re just trying to grow and figure out who we are early. We got some players. We’ve got some girls that are returning for us, and we’ve got some girls who are looking to be ready for the varsity level.”

Some players from last year Costley hopes to have bigger leadership roles along with impact on the court this year includes junior Jo Thurman, who has starting experience from last season and learned to be a vocal leader during timeouts, senior Messiah Simpson, a role player that “always comes up with big moments,” senior Capri’Ona Fountain, who played inside and will be expected to contribute more in the paint this season, and senior Kierstan Epperson, who has shown some growth as she has been challenged in different situations.

Speaking of growth, Mexico had a tough test in reigning Class 4 fourth-place St. James in its first game at the BSN Shootout in Rolla two weeks ago. With the new crop of Lady Bulldogs, Costley said they can learn from it or disappear when they play against quality opponents like that. He thinks this is the kind of group that will learn from it and be better as season goes on.

“I think we got the chance to grow from it and learn from it and will help us understand where we have to be,” Costley said. “For us, we have to learn to play a little faster pace individually. As a team, we’re hustling, but we’ve got to have some individuals understand that they’ve got to turn it up a notch.”