The Mexico girls’ basketball team continued to build confidence with two more wins last week.

The Lady Bulldogs had gotten into a good rhythm with five straight victories heading into contests against Hannibal and Harrisburg. They kept things rolling will back-to-back blowout wins at home.

Head coach Ed Costley highlighted his team’s outside shooting as a big part of its recent success. He specifically pointed to freshman Claire Hudson and junior Lexi Willer, who have started to find their shooting strokes. 

“Those two have kind of been the ones we’ve been looking forward to coming through from that 3-point line,” Costley explained. “And they had two good 3-point shooting games, so you just hope that we can carry that through and keep building on that over the break.”

Mexico has also continued to mesh as a team, with eight different players tallying points in Thursday’s 55-25 rout of the visiting Lady Pirates.

“It was one of those games that it was good to see everybody was able to produce,” said Costley. “We had some really balanced scoring throughout the game.”

Maya Miller led the Bulldogs with 15, Hudson added nine, Taylor DeMint scored eight, Jordyn Thurman chipped in seven, Riley Thurman and Willer tallied six and Messiah Simpson and Kierstan Epperson rounding out the scoring with two apiece.

“One of the biggest things was that we were better passing and dribbling,” Costley said. “We were able to create opportunities and come up with a lot of team assists.”

Costley also noted how stingy the Lady Bulldogs were on defense. His squad held Hannibal to just 25 points on 32% shooting, keeping them out of the lane and contesting outside shots.

“I think the key was in our half-court defense,” he said. “I thought we did a really good job getting out in passing lanes and we got a lot of deflections.”

The Lady Bulldogs’ dominance rolled over into the weekend, as they dispatched Harrisburg 67-38 in their matchup of the Gary Filbert Classic.

Mexico got out in transition early and often, tallying 32 points in the paint and building a 32-18 halftime lead before outscoring Harrisburg 35-20 in the second half.

Again, the Lady Bulldogs had contributions up and down the roster, with three players finishing in double figures.

Miller finished with a team-high 22, Hudson added 11 and senior Riley Thurman did it all — recording a triple-double — with 15 points, 12 rebounds and 10 helpers.

Willer notched eight points, Jordan Thurman finished with six and DeMint and Capri’Ona Fountain chipped in three and two, respectively.

Mexico enters the holiday break at 7-1, but Costley said there are still a couple things from recent contests that his team needs to improve.

“The thing I look at both games that concerns me is the number of offensive rebounds we’re allowing,” he explained. “I think that’s probably the one thing I’d look at that’d be the negative from those two games.”

The Lady Bulldogs return to action on January 4, playing host to Fulton in a North Central Missouri Conference matchup.

“For us coming back in, that’s a conference game and I think our girls will be ready to step up,” Costley said. “We know Fulton will be keyed up and ready to come at us strong, so we’ve got to be ready and make sure that we get better over these next six or seven days that we have to practice.”