The third quarter belongs to the Lady Bulldogs.

Mexico at Westminster Christian Academy Sectional Photo Gallery

That has been the case for the Mexico girls this season and was the case in Tuesday night's 68-53 Class 4 sectional victory at Westminster Christian Academy (12-17) in Town and Country near Chesterfield. Mexico outscored the Lady Wildcats 25-15 to advance to a quarterfinal game at 1 p.m. Saturday at state No. 4 MICDS (22-6).

Head coach Makenzie Mudd said Mexico (16-13) has a second-half team this season and has especially been at its strongest in the third quarter. Mudd said there were some signs of the Lady Bulldogs coming around the second quarter but fully realized what needed to be done in the second half.

"We prepped a lot for this game for their zone, working on the backside being open and attacking the middle," Mudd said. "We did a little bit in the first half but not as well as we could have."

Mexico fell behind 15-4 in the first quarter but cut that 15-9 after a Scottie Smith 3-pointer. In the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs trailed 23-13 but then were down by as little as 25-24. They could've taken the lead into halftime but couldn't take advantage of a pair of Smith steals so went into the intermission down 27-24.

In the third quarter, Mexico broke through partly because of Claire Hudson crashing the boards. Hudson finished with 18 points, 18 rebounds and 10 assists and helped lead Mexico until it had a 49-42 lead going into the fourth quarter. It Hudson's second triple-double within a week after posting one in the district first round against Moberly.

"In this game, shots weren't falling in the first half so offensive rebounds is how you have to handle that," Hudson said. "I was being guarded pretty heave after I made that first three (in the first quarter). If I kicked to my teammates, they would have a shot and I could go rebound."

Alyssa Miller grabbed seven rebounds to go along with five assists and a team-high 19 points and barreled inside through Westminster for two 3-point plays. Both of those happened in the second half, which Miller refers to as "their thing."

"It might me nerves in the beginning of the game, but then we get all comfortable," Miller said. "We're just ready to roll."

Miller said Mexico does well helping each other on defense and did better with that in the second half. That led to more turnovers taken away by the Lady Bulldogs, including seven steals by Smith to go along with her 15 points.

Addie Kane was clearly a focus for Mexico as Mudd, Hudson and Miller each brought up her name. Kane finished with 21 points and seven rebounds to lead Westminster but only had four points in the fourth quarter.

"She's fantastic," Mudd said. "We slowed her down, and that pressured everybody else and were able to take advantage of some mistakes they made at that point."

Essence Robertson was Westminster's next highest scorer with 13 points. Hudson said Mexico's defense was able to settle once the Kane problem was addressed.

"We knew she could shoot it, but they started getting it inside to her over the top," Hudson said. "I started to front her to not let her get that lob get over our defense."

When Mexico started to make its comeback in the second quarter, Kenzie Taylor scored all six of her points in that quarter. To pull away in the second half, Hannah Loyd stepped in with her first points on a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer at the end of the third quarter. Loyd added four more points in the fourth quarter.

Mudd said the senior leader Hudson is a good source of energy for the other girls to feed off of as Hudson's attitude was definitely seen throughout the team.

"She's a senior so she's not ready for it to be finished yet," Mudd said. "She's going in there and she's fighting for every single rebound she can get. She's working on scoring in any way she can possibly score to help her team out. That's something the rest of them really feed of off as well."

Westminster did cut into Mexico's lead to as low as six points in the fourth quarter, but the Lady Bulldogs had a leg up on the Lady Wildcats. Before the midpoint of the fourth quarter, Westminster picked up five fouls and was forced to play the foul game for much of the eight minutes.

"It gave us some breaks and some time to stop and catch our breath," Mudd said. "It also gave us that advantage that they had to play a little bit more careful for that whole quarter. We were able to play a little bit more aggressive than they were."

The Lady Bulldogs advanced to a quarterfinal game one night after the Bulldogs won their sectional game 55-49 at Orchard Farm. This is the first time since 1997 that both basketball teams advanced to the quarterfinals.

"I'm so excited and am so proud of these girls," Hudson said. "I never even imagined this, and it feels good. I'm happy we could do it with our boys. It's so cool to see both teams succeeding."