While the Mexico girls want to play fast this season, the Lady Bulldogs' mistakes late quickly led to a 52-49 loss on Tuesday at home.
After tying the game at 49 on a transition layup by Scottie Smith off a steal and assist by Grace Hudson, Alyssa Miller then rebounded the ball for Mexico (4-4, 1-1 NCMC) before a timeout was called with 37.6 seconds left in the game. The Lady Bulldogs then turned the ball over three straight times as Kirksville (3-2, 1-0 NCMC) hit 3-of-4 free throws and Mexico missed its last chance 3-pointer.
"We were trying to rush the ball inbounds instead of running the play that we drew up," head coach Makenzie Mudd said. "They were reading it every time."
Mudd said, despite Mexico hurting Kirksville in transition off turnovers, Kirksville made Mexico's mistakes hurt and ultimately led to the close loss. That, and the Lady Tigers picking up too many offensive rebounds from the Lady Bulldogs' "ball watching," led to Mexico's second loss in four meetings to its North Central Missouri Conference and district foe Kirksville -- all games decided by less than 10 points.
Smith and Hudson each led Mexico with 15 points. Smith had six rebounds, and Hudson had four steals and three 3-pointers. Claire Hudson just missed scoring double figures with nine points but had 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Chloe Carter led Kirksville with 13 points and seven rebounds, Paishynce Fouts had 10 points and six rebounds and Alia Puckett finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
Mexico will have to make any corrections before facing another conference foe at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, this time on the road against Class 5 No. 9 Hannibal (6-1, 2-0 NCMC).
"We do like to play faster, but we also need to know when to slow down and try to make something happen," Mudd said. "In the fourth quarter, we weren't running what we're supposed to run. We were panicking and trying to rush to get opportunities that weren't there instead of waiting for what was going to be there."
Look for the full story and results from Mexico's next conference game in Hannibal in the Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024, edition of the Mexico Ledger.
