After battering Hannibal for three quarters on Thursday, the Bulldogs could rein in their offense. But the girls – particularly Elizabeth Joiner – would not let up on defense.

Joiner’s skirmish with the Pirates’ Gracie Martin and anyone else who dared to invade that precious sliver of space under the rim was more than a fourth quarter sideshow.

“I feel like everyone was watching,” Joiner said. “I was not going to let this post player get the ball.”

Mexico allowed a single basket in the final eight minutes to keelhaul the Pirates 51-15 in Hannibal.

With the Bulldogs smothering almost every stab by Hannibal and with shots falling readily on offense, it was a blowout from the start. Riley Thurman drifted to the baseline then whipped the ball to Alexis Willer for the first score. Mya Miller picked off a ball on one end and found Thurman for two at the other. Willer emerged from a scrum in the paint at the Pirates’ end of the court and ended up draining a three.

Before the buzzer sounded to end the first, Mexico had a 16-1 lead. And Hannibal’s lone point was a free throw by Martin with 22 seconds to go.

The Bulldogs harried Hannibal up and down the court. Of the 16 points Mexico scored in the opening period, 11 came off turnovers. Taylor DeMint’s bit of thievery led to a Miller put back. Willer and Riley Blevins teamed up to nick the ball in the back court, with Thurman finishing things off at the line.

“When our defense is working, so is our offense,” Miller explained.

Hannibal tried to blunt the Bulldogs’ attack with a zone, but head coach Ed Costley’s squad responded by posting high, swinging the ball around the arc and finding Miller, Thurman or Willer cutting into space.

“We definitely saw how wide their zone was,” Miller said, adding that Willer’s angling cuts and back door runs exposed the Pirates defense early on.

Willer recorded 7 of her 12 points for the game in the first quarter. And while Costley said he was impressed how the team picked apart the zone look, Willer expected it to be more difficult.

“I thought they’d be on us,” she pointed out. As for her shooting spree, Willer just noted “my shots were falling.”

Indeed, the Bulldogs were sharp in every aspect of the game. Capri’Ona Fountain threaded a pass through three defenders to hit Willer in stride as she peeling into the lane. After Blevins and Thurman worked a steal, Blevins zigged toward the baseline drawing the attention of Hannibal’s back line. She then fired to an open Thurman. DeMint’s perfect pass to Thurman on a break wrapped up the first half at 30-3.

“I thought we came out strong from the beginning,” Costley observed. “We didn’t give up a lot of easy looks.”

Miller scored 20 on the night. Thurman matched Willer with a dozen and DeMint hit a three.

Mexico slowed the pace in the final period. Messiah Simpson’s deft finger roll and Jordyn Thurman’s lay in after weaving through the lane closed things out.