The Mexico girls encountered some trouble in the first half Saturday.

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For the second straight season in the Gary Filbert Classic in Mexico, the Lady Bulldogs played Van-Far and trailed the Lady Indians 33-32 at halftime before pulling away in the second half to a 64-53 win. Claire Hudson was the Gary Filbert Player of the Game with 29 points, seven rebounds and three 3-pointers but had help from her teammates in the victory.

It was good Mexico had this support since Hudson picked up her third personal foul in the first half. Despite that, she played with them and rattled in 14 points in the second half to lead the Lady Bulldogs to their second straight Filbert Classic win over Van-Far. 

“We had a long talk that, ‘If you go back in, you have to keep your hands to yourself,’” head coach Makenzie Mudd said with a grin. “She did a much better job. She does tend to get a lot of fouls just because she’s aggressive. She wants the ball. She had to remind herself, ‘Hey, I can’t go for that steal because I don’t have a foul to give.’”

Van-Far was giving Mexico a competitive game in the first half, taking the lead a few times before just falling behind 30-28 with under two minutes left in the first half. Mylee Keller scored after coming away with a steal to put Van-Far ahead at the half. 

“We knew they were fast because we played them in our jamboree on Monday,” Mudd said. “They’ve got a lot of quick girls that are all over the place. In the first half, we had a few mishaps or some lazy moments. That’s what we fixed in the second half, correcting some of those mistakes of not helping out on defense and not shifting where we needed to be.”

Van-Far’s sophomore post player Chloe Zumwalt had a big game with 22 points and six rebounds. Zumwalt towered over the Lady Bulldogs, who were without Kenzie Taylor due to an ankle injury. Taylor was out most of last season with a hurt ankle and then hurt the other ankle in practice this season.

Still, Mudd said Landri Teel “kicked butt” on defense and “really worked hard down low.” She said some underclassmen were there to support upperclassmen like Hudson and Teel. 

Hudson’s sophomore sister Grace Hudson finished with 13 points and three 3-pointers, and freshmen Scottie Smith had 14 points and six rebounds and Alyssa Miller posted 11 rebounds and four steals to go with six points. Those three underclassmen combined for 18 points in the second half.

“There were definitely some nerves at the beginning, but they did a really great job of settling in and just playing the game and keeping up with those upperclassmen,” Mudd said.