The Mexico boys had their eyes opened on Tuesday. 

Two days before a conference championship meeting with Moberly (17-7, 6-2 NCMC), the Bulldogs lost 63-55 to North Central Missouri Conference and district rival Fulton on Tuesday at home. Mexico (17-7, 6-2 NCMC) trailed for a majority of the game, taking a three-point lead momentarily in the third quarter before Fulton (8-12, 4-3 NCMC) jumped ahead with 21 points in the fourth quarter.

Class 4 No. 7 Mexico has had to come back to beat Fulton before this season when it forced overtime and won 56-49 on Jan. 6 in Fulton. Head coach Darren Pappas said Mexico didn’t get the necessary defensive stops this time.

Mexico vs Fulton Photo Gallery

“We didn’t do a very good job of closing out on shooters, and we gave them second and third opportunities,” Pappas said. “When you’re trying to play catchup, you’re pushing all your pressures up and sometimes you leave guys wide open on the backside. That’s exactly what happened.”

Thomas Pittman finished with a floor-high 24 points and had three 3-pointers while Paul Bruner had 21 points and three 3-pointers to be key contributors for Fulton. Whenever Mexico hit a shot to cut into its deficit, it was either Pittman or Bruner who had the answer. 

“They’re both all-conference caliber kids,” Pappas said. “We’ve got to do a better job of containing Pittman on the dribble, and you can’t lose Bruner on the perimeter. They complement themselves very well.”

Kaden Benne led with 20 points, seven rebounds and four 3-pointers, Brady Thoenen finished with 15 points and three 3-pointers, and Matai Holman had nine points on three 3-pointers.

Pappas said Mexico didn’t get going offensively in the first four minutes of the game. The Bulldogs did find some offense eventually with 13 3-pointers, which Pappas liked but said there wasn’t that other dimension to the offense.

“They go to the line 18 times, and we go to the line twice,” Pappas said. “That tells me we didn’t attack their zone very well and didn’t finish around the rim. We’ve got to do a better job of moving the basketball and attacking the zone.”

Fulton is “long and athletic” and that makes for a tough zone to attack, Pappas said. If passes are made across that zone, Fulton reads the passes and comes away with turnovers. 

Charlie Fisher wasn’t with the team on Tuesday. The senior point guard had a family emergency so he couldn’t play one game after having 25 points and 10 assists in a 76-65 victory at School of the Osage. 

“Charlie is a big part of what we do and we miss him, but he needs to be with his family during this time,” Pappas said. “You can see what it means to have Charlie on the floor with us as a two-year starter and four-year varsity player.”

Fisher and Benne have not been on the floor at the same time against Fulton this season. In the first meeting, Benne was still recovering from injury. 

Pappas said having that duo together makes it tough on opponents. He said Mexico needs to have that third and fourth scorer in the future.”

“He sees the floor really well and pushes the ball in transition,” Pappas said about Fisher. “Whenever one of them’s not on the floor, it puts a lot of pressure on those guys to perform. I thought Kaden did a good job of stepping up and rising up to the challenge.”

Mexico welcomes conference and district rival Moberly, who has won five straight games, to town at 7:45 p.m. tonight. The Bulldogs lost 88-79 at Moberly earlier this month and are now even record-wise with the Spartans, making this conference championship game on Senior Night even bigger. 

The Bulldogs can’t dwell too long on the Fulton loss, but Pappas said it can hopefully help them going into a pivotal game.

“I hope it makes us dig a little deeper,” Pappas said. “I hope it makes us work a little harder and pay attention to the fine print and details of the scouting report. It’s not going to be easy as Moberly is playing really good basketball right now.”