KIRKSVILLE — Mexico girls basketball coach Ed Costley always says the drive to Kirksville feels like his team starts with a 10-point deficit.

But when it mattered most in Tuesday’s clash, the Mexico faithful who also made the drive turned the Kirksville Primary School gym into their own, helping the Bulldogs win 34-32.

With about four minutes left, Mexico’s Logan Blevins was called for an iffy foul on a shot block. Costley disagreed with it and the officials had a short leash for his dispute, quickly giving him a technical foul. Kirksville trailed 30-26 and was gifted four free throw attempts to tie.

Kirksville (10-12) senior Elyse Johnson was picked to shoot the technical foul free throws. The Mexico (13-5) crowd put Kirksville’s to shame with how loud it got during the four-shot situation, giving its team an advantage that the home fans did not. Johnson missed both technical free throws and then Anna Moore missed both of her attempts after the foul.

“As a coach, you never want to put yourself in a situation where you could cost them the ballgame,” Costley said. “It was close and luckily we came out. Our group was really loud and made enough noise and kept it going. Those free throws were big for us and would’ve tied the ballgame. Those things happen and you have to figure out different situations to pull it out.”

That situation just hammers home the lack of focus by the Tigers late in the game. It’s another game where the Tigers were in contention for a win but couldn’t pull the trigger. Mexico held Kirksville scoreless for a large chunk of the final four minutes, with the Tigers notching just six points in that timeframe.

“I would rather be in them and competing than not, but I told the girls we played just well enough to lose,” said Tigers head coach Nick Totta. “There’s been several of those, and I think there are things you can point to why we’re not getting it done. You can live with not winning and not coming out on top if you’ve done everything you can do. The effort is good, physically, but I think execution-wise and focus-wise, we can be better.”

Mexico did a good job of frustrating the Tigers by switching defenses around. In man-to-man, Kirksville had success. But in zone, the Tigers were inconsistent with their approach. Sometimes they handled Mexico’s press well, stayed patient and got a good shot off. Other times they rushed, made a turnover or took a bad shot.

“In the end, I thought it came down to our defense,” Costley said. “We did enough changing on defense. When we go man, their personnel has an advantage. But I thought on our zone, we did a good job of communicating.”

Mexico sophomore Mya Miller was key on defense for the Bulldogs and she also had a team-high 12 points. Reghan Smith had 10 for the Bulldogs, scoring six in the fourth quarter.

Jenna Jackson led the way for Kirksville with 10 points.