The Mexico Bulldogs continued their winning ways last week.

After big time victories over St. Michael the Archangel at the Norm Stewart Classic and previously undefeated Kirksville on the road, it would have been easy for the team to drop its guard and overlook looming matchups with Hannibal and Harrisburg.

However, despite a quick turnaround, the Bulldogs stayed the course and notched two more in the win column.

“If you want a chance at the conference title, which is one of our goals this season,” head coach Darren Pappas said. “Then you’ve got to be able to take care of those conference opponents one game at a time.”

The Bulldogs got out to a bit of a slow start hosting Hannibal on Thursday — tied at 14 after one — but then were able to flip the switch and run away with a 64-36 win.

Defense was the turning point for Mexico, limiting the visiting Pirates to nine second-quarter points and just 13 total points in the second half.

“Our defense got really, really good in the second half,” said Pappas. “We were able to get stops and then able to score on the offensive end. So really, that was the difference between the first and the second half, is in the second half we just got after it.”

The Bulldogs finished the contest with 15 steals, 22 points off turnovers and 46 points in the paint. They also had 23 offensive boards and out-rebounded Hannibal 44-24.

 Senior Daeye Miller played a big role in his team’s rebounding success, tallying 12 boards to go along with 15 points. Senior Michael White led the Bulldogs in scoring with 16 points and added three boards, and senior Isaiah Reams notched 10 points, five rebounds and six assists.

“We knew that Hannibal was going to run a zone, and we were able to find some gaps,” Pappas said. “That was Michael and Daeye able to get the ball in the middle of their zone and do things with it and be aggressive attacking the basket.”

In all, Mexico had 10 different players score in the win.

Jordan Shelton finished with eight, D.J. Long had five, Kanye Nunnelly three, Anthony Shivers, Donye Nunnelly and Dominic McKeown each scored two and Peyton Willer added one.

Mexico followed the win over Hannibal with a 73-58 victory over Harrisburg in the Gary Filbert Classic.

The contest played out almost opposite to the Hannibal game. Instead of a slow start and strong second half, the Bulldogs came out hot, scorching the nets with six 3-pointers in the first two quarters to lead 45-18 at the break.

“I told the boys at halftime, don’t get comfortable,” Pappas explained. “Because Harrisburg is a good team and they’ll make adjustments and they’ll make a run at us.”

The visiting Bulldogs did just that, outscoring Mexico 20-13 in the third and 20-15 in the fourth.

Pappas said his team didn’t execute as well offensively in the second half, and that defensively, they didn’t come out with as much focus. However, after building a 27-point lead, the Bulldogs held on to win.

“Give Harrisburg credit,” Pappas said. “They could’ve backed down but they didn’t. They kept fighting and got right back into it.”

Reams led Mexico with 23 points and five rebounds, Miller added 11 points and nine boards and Willer knocked down three triples to finish with nine.

Pappas also highlighted the play of senior McKeown, who contributed six points and seven rebounds.

“He was huge for us,” said Pappas. “He had six points and seven rebounds off the bench, which was big. He’s one of our reserve post players and he came in and played extremely well.”

Mexico has a bit of a breather over the holiday break before returning to action on January 4 in a North Central Missouri Conference rivalry game against Fulton.

The Bulldogs toppled Fulton 73-61 earlier this season at the Montgomery County Invitational, but Pappas said his team still needs to stay focused.

“Anytime you play a team like Fulton you’re going to get their best shot no matter what,” he said. “So we gotta be prepared for that.”