The latter half of the fourth quarter on Saturday wasn’t “Mexico basketball.”

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Mexico head boys coach Darren Pappas said the Class 4 seventh-ranked Bulldogs didn’t play the game they wanted in the closing minutes of their Gary Filbert Classic game in Mexico after losing 63-52 to Mexico native Tyronn Lue’s alma mater Raytown. Mexico allowed Raytown to shoot 11-for-16 from the free-throw line and 18-for-16 overall from the line.

After going back and forth all night with the Class 5 school who has a pair of 20 win seasons in the past three years, Raytown (4-3) was at the quarter limit of five fouls and were only ahead 40-39 with six minutes left but then Mexico (8-1) quickly reached that limit too after PJ Perkins and Jaydon Eldridge each picked up their fourth personal foul. There was much diving on the floor and contact that resulted in Raytown taking free shots and the game slipping away for the Bulldogs.

“They turned up their defense, and we didn’t handle their pressure very well,” Pappas said. “We hurt ourselves there late in the fourth quarter. We knew they were going to put pressure on us, but I just felt like late in the game we made mistakes and checked out mentally at times and that’s not Mexico basketball. We can’t just check out when things get tough, when shots don’t fall or we don’t get calls. You’ve got to continue to get better and work extremely hard,”

Pappas said Raytown is a deceptive team when first looking at them on paper as the Bluejays play many big schools, which explains why they went into Saturday with a 3-3 record. He said Mexico knew Raytown has a number of good athletes on the floor, and that’s what makes their defensive pressure so effective.

When the game started, the action was fast and intense. Every rebound and turnover sent all 10 players on the floor at any given time off to the races, sending players crashing to the floor after sustaining contact on a shot attempt, because of tough defense or just simply because they were too swift.

“They kept us to one shot and out,” Pappas said. “Every time a shot goes up, they had two or three guys at the rim and then they were getting guys leaking out in transition. We didn’t get back, and they were scoring easy layups.”

Ramelo Smith was the most effective at scoring in transition for Raytown as his 19 points secured the final MVP award of the day. Larry Porter followed with 14 points, but the Bluejays had more than three other players that were hard to catch on the run.

DJ Long and the Bulldogs are usually effective on the fastbreak and were at times. Kaden Benne bounced a pass to Eldridge for the transition layup to end the first half in a tie at 25.

Perkins, who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds, knocked down two 3-pointers in the first quarter to help Mexico own a lead for most of the third quarter until Raytown’s lone 3-pointer gave them the 13-12 lead going into the second. During that time, Raytown was making Long uncomfortable, but he adjusted to lead the Bulldogs with 19 points.

“We were trying to get him to come off screens and try to get downhill and read what the defense gave him,” Pappas said. “Guys got bumped, and we just didn’t get some of the calls and didn’t get some of the shots to fall. 

“It’s not about the officiating. We just got to be more efficient on the offensive end. On the defensive end, we just have to do what we’ve done best for eight games.”