Boys basketball

Mexico unable to contain Kirksville duo in 83-71 loss

The Mexico boys knew what was in store Tuesday night in their home opener against Kirksville.

The Bulldogs went in with seven straight wins against the Tigers, with the most recent loss happening Jan. 31, 2020, on Mexico’s home court. Kirksville broke that streak behind 32-point performances from Isaac Danielson and Keaton Anderson and handed Mexico an 83-71 loss.

Mexico (5-2, 1-1 NCMC) had strong first and third quarters, scoring a combined 49 points but stumbled in the middle quarters, being outscored 41-22. After a nine-point first quarter, Anderson couldn’t be stopped as he scored 18 points and hit three of his four 3-pointers in the middle quarters, including a deep turnaround buzzer-beating shot to end the third quarter with Kirksville (4-1, 2-0 NCMC) ahead 56-40. Danielson hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter before scoring half of his points in the fourth quarter, finishing 18-for-20 from the free throw line along with four steals.

“Stopping Danielson, stopping Anderson, contesting Cole Kelly’s shots from the corner and keeping Camden Dempsay off the glass,” head coach Darren Pappas said. “It was all in the scouting report and I feel like we didn’t do a very good job of any of that tonight. We just got to do a better job of having that defensive mentality to come in and stop players or else those players like Anderson and Danielson are going to take advantage of it.”

Mexico had its big two scorers most of the night as Jordan Shelton and DJ Long each had a team-high 26 points. Long nailed three 3-pointers and came away with two steals while Shelton was a missile in transition, scoring 13 points and completing two 3-point plays in the fourth quarter. Long added to the last-ditch effort, scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter.

Before getting there, however, the Bulldogs were down 44-40 in the third quarter. They turned the ball over on three straight possessions that Kirksville morphed into a 7-0 run and 51-40 advantage with a minute left in the quarter. The run snowballed into a 16-2 run about two minutes deep into the fourth quarter, which is when the Bulldogs got going again offensively.

“I thought we played a very good first half, but in the second half, they put it to us,” Pappas said. “We didn’t respond very well. Maybe that’s partly youth — I don’t know — versus their veteran leadership. They were just capitalizing off our mistakes. "

Pappas said he would like to see players score more consistently behind Shelton and Long. Shivers has had a couple good scoring games, but struggles from the field prevented from that next one emerging Tuesday. Besides that, Mexico could run better offensively before Thursday’s 7:30 p.m. game against North Central Missouri Conference foe Hannibal (3-3, 1-1 NCMC).

“We’ve got to be better prepared,” Pappas said. “It’s not like we didn’t have them prepared, but we got to do a better job of moving the basketball, moving without the basketball, making sure we are sharing the ball as much as possible and knocking down shots from the perimeter.”

North Callaway takes away Van-Far’s top scorer to win 67-44

Van-Far’s Nikos Connaway was averaging 25 points per game through five games this season and was coming off a career-high 34 points Thursday against Hallsville.

Connaway finished Tuesday’s game at Eastern Missouri Conference foe North Callaway with six points — his first single-digit scoring game of the season and first since scoring eight points in Van-Far’s 58-48 season-ending loss to Clopton last season. North Callaway, on the other hand, was led by Sam Pezold’s 28 points — six 3-pointers while going 11-for-15 from the field — and nine rebounds in a 67-44 home-opening victory while regaining its leading scorer from a season ago in Matthew Weber, who finished with 10 points in eight minutes off the bench.

Van-Far (2-4, 1-1 EMO) finished with two double-digit scorers in Gage Gibson and Pacey Reading, tallying 15 and 12 points, respectively, with Gibson knocking down three 3-pointers. Still, North Callaway head coach Matt Miller was happy with his players executing the defense planned for Connaway. Miller said the Thunderbirds (3-3, 2-0 EMO) wanted to keep someone on him the entire game, and it was a team effort as different players checked in to keep their legs fresh against the talented Indian.

“We did a great job with our ‘jump’ defense to slow their leading scorer down,” Miller said. 

Connaway seldom had an open look from 3-point territory and picked up four of his points in the fourth quarter.

Braydn O’Neal scored nine points and tallied six assists, and Trenton Jones had six points and five rebounds to round out North Callaway’s top contributors. 

The Thunderbirds owned a 13-5 lead after one quarter before taking a 32-15 lead at halftime and 52-30 advantage after three quarters.

North Callaway tries to make it three straight conference wins to start the season with a 7:30 p.m. Friday game against Louisiana (5-2, 1-1 EMO).

Community R-6 47 Sturgeon 28

Centralia 44 California 38 in California

Girls basketball

Mexico's offense breaks down vs physical Kirksville defense in 49-39 loss

The Mexico girls were happy with their offense Tuesday in the first half, but that didn’t last long.

The Lady Bulldogs dropped their home opener to North Central Missouri Conference foe Kirksville 49-39 despite leading 19-16 at halftime. The Lady Tigers (2-3, 1-1 NCMC) held Mexico (3-5, 1-1 NCMC) to one field goal in the third quarter, using that to build a eight-point lead that was widened with some of seven 3-pointers.

Claire Hudson and Lexie Willer started their offensive games strong with 15 combined points. Hudson had eight points after going 6-for-6 — 8-for-8 for the game — from the free throw line, and Willer went to the rim aggressively for her seven points. Hudson finished with a game-high 18 points, Willer followed with nine points and Kenzie Taylor had seven points all in the fourth quarter.

“Kirksville turned up the pressure a little bit more on defense,” head coach Ed Costley said. “They got a little more aggressive and physical with us. We didn’t handle it a little bit and get where we needed to. Our spacing broke down on offense.”

Kirksville were led on offense and defense by Jada Jackson and Ellie Porter as they each finished with a team-high 14 points. Jackson scored 11 of her points in the middle quarters, and Porter scored eight points in the fourth quarter — going 4-for-4 at the free throw line.

On defense is where Jackson and Porter affected Mexico the most as the duo combined for seven of Kirksville’s eight steals. Jackson picked up one of those steals in the second quarter after hitting a 3-pointer to break a 7-0 Mexico run. She scored on a jumper on the other end.

“They were very pesky guarding,” Costley said. “On the other end, in the first half, I thought the defense did a good job of containing them on the dribble and keeping them off-balance. They got used to it, figured it out a little bit and got a little bit more flow. They started to use their dribble penetration to attack our gaps.”

Costley said Mexico was aware how well the Lady Tigers could shoot the ball as Channing Totta followed their top two scorers with three 3-pointers, and Paishynce Fouts knocked down a pair of deep shots. After what Jackson and Porter were able to do, the Lady Bulldogs then allowed more open looks from the perimeter.

“We were trying to stay wide to limit the 3-point looks,” Costley said. “Then they decided to attack the paint and make us have to collapse a little bit. That was the difference.”

Mexico goes back on the road at 6 p.m. Thursday to face conference foe Hannibal (5-2, 1-1).

Community R-6 40 Sturgeon 34 in Sturgeon

Centralia 44 Blair Oaks 32 in Centralia

Look for the full stories in the Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022, edition of the Mexico Ledger or on the website on the same day.