The Mexico girls were giving away too much Monday night at home.

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The Lady Bulldogs were giving away too many points to Marshall, trailing 21-10 in the second quarter, but the fouls were also out of control. Despite reaching the penalty early in the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs surged ahead at first with a 20-3 run and held off their North Central Missouri Conference foe 54-46.

Head coach Ed Costley said the main issue was defending without fouling, and he thought Mexico didn’t do that very well in the first half.

“They went to the free throw line, it wasn’t like she shot it a lot, but they made 10 of their 24 points off the free throw line,” Costley said. “That was one of the main things. We gave them too easy looks to get to the line.”

Claire Hudson provided a steady presence for Mexico (8-14, 4-3 NCMC) while scoring the ball and competing on the boards as she finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, Lexie Willer followed with 13 points and three steals, Messiah Simpson had seven points, and Jo Thurman finished with six points.

Before Mexico went into halftime down 24-20, Hudson knocked down a 3-pointer to answer a 16-2 Marshall run led mostly by Brooklynn Davenport, who led the Lady Owls (5-16, 0-6 NCMC) with 16 points. Willer hit another 3-pointer off a ball Thurman saved from going out of bounds and then the Lady Bulldogs rolled through Marshall early in the third quarter, picking up three layups that drew fouls

“In the first half, they were being physical on the offensive end, using their body to get the contact,” Costley said. “We had several drives earlier and they were blocking shots. I told them, ‘We got to take our body and create contact so we can get to the line.’ I asked them at beginning of the game to attack, pass the ball down the floor, and getting down the floor. We had a lot of opportunities for fastbreak chances.”

Hudson remembers the first narrow 52-49 victory at Marshall in December and how she was able to knock down five 3-pointers in the second half. She said Marshall was aware of that when it came to her and her teammates this time around so driving to the rim became paramount.

“Coming into this game, I knew the 3 wasn’t going to be open,” Hudson said. “I knew driving was going to be how I was going to help our team on offense in this game. That’s what we did. We got to the free throw line, made our free throws and that was the difference for us.”

Hudson barreled in for a 3-point play early in the third quarter, and Capri’Ona Fountain and Messiah Simpson each put back an offensive rebound that drew a foul. Simpson scored all seven of her points in the third quarter. The Lady Bulldogs had a 30-24 lead with a little more than five minutes left until the fourth quarter.

Marshall cut Mexico’s lead to one possession at various times, however, so the Lady Bulldogs going 16-of-27 free throws in the game but 8-of-9 in the fourth quarter held off the Lady Owls.

“We passed the ball to the post very good,” Hudson said. “We came out in the third quarter strong and they were just fouling every time we went up. So we attacked them.”

Willer went 4-of-4 at the free throw line to score six points in the fourth quarter. Mexico had a 46-43 lead in the last few minutes prior to Willer coming away with her third steal of the game and moving to the other end where she got open for a layup to push it to two possession with about a minute left.

Hudson added another six points in the final eight minutes after posting at least five points in every quarter beforehand.

“She’s been that person for us throughout the season — just has been steady and constant on offense and defense,” Costley said. “She picks her moments where she is aggressive.”

Mexico played at Class 5 Capital City (3-16) in Jefferson City on Friday prior to facing North Central Missouri Conference rival Fulton (6-15, 1-4 NCMC) for the third time this season at 6:30 p.m. in Fulton.