The Mexico girls were too fast on Tuesday night.

Mexico vs Silex Photo Gallery

The Lady Bulldogs’ turnovers piled up to allow Silex to finish with 25 steals and a 24-8 first-quarter lead that turned into a 56-36 home-opening loss for Mexico. In the third quarter, the Lady Bulldogs were able to cut the deficit to as low as 12 points but couldn’t make any more of a dent thanks to Silex’s aggressive approach on defense.

Head coach Makenzie Mudd said Mexico had a polar opposite start in its season-opening game last Saturday against Owensville, taking a 14-8 lead after the first quarter. She said the difference with Silex is the mistakes kept piling up, and the Lady Bulldogs were being too quick.

"Tonight, we got behind quick and we struggled to realize that we could overcome it," Mudd said. "We made silly mistakes because we weren't taking our time and doing what we know how to do.”

Mudd said Mexico has the ability to handle a press like the one Silex featured. In fact, the Lady Bulldogs faced it last season in a narrow 45-44 loss in Silex. She said Mexico has the speed and basketball intelligence but needs to have a slower mindset.

“They've got the ability (to handle the press),” Mudd said. “They just made a mistake, we'd panic, we wouldn't stop, slow down, control the ball and control the tempo. We let their speed and their energy take over."

Mudd said Silex is an “intense” team that uses traps and is in the face of the ball handler in every part of the court. This proved correct even when Mexico came down with a rebound, and the Lady Owls grabbed hold of the ball to force several tie-ups that sometimes ended up on the floor.

Since it is the second game of the season, Mudd said the Lady Bulldogs perhaps weren’t as accustomed to seeing defense that much in their faces especially since Owensville didn’t use much pressure in the first game. Now, Mexico needs to adjust handling competition like that.

In spurts, Mexico did some damage and dished it out mainly through returning all-North Central Missouri Conference player Claire Hudson. She finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and two steals as she drove to the rim for six points in the second quarter before trying to set up opportunities for her teammates.

“She is really good at seeing things and making things happen,” Mudd said. “Toward the end, she was trying to make stuff happen that wasn’t there, which can’t fault her for that. They made us work, and they did a great job of defense to try to ruffle our feathers.”

Jo Thurman followed Hudson in scoring with six points and had three steals, Hannah Loyd finished with five points and five rebounds, and Hudson’s sister and freshman Grace Hudson added five points.

For Silex, Maddie Isom finished with 20 points and hit three 3-pointers, Austyn Van Horn followed with nine points, and Kenzee James matched that total and had two 3-pointers.

On the bucket that brought Mexico to its lowest deficit of 12 points after the first quarter, it was Hudson that pulled down a rebound and made a half-court-length pass to her sister Grace for the transition layup. 

“Those are the things we were trying to do the whole game — get it to the middle and down the floor,” Mudd said. “The few times we did it, it looked great.”

Mudd thinks the Silex game can help in Mexico’s next game in the Montgomery County Invitational Tournament after Thanksgiving break. As the No. 7 seed, the Lady Bulldogs face No. 2 Hermann (0-1) at 6 p.m. Monday in the middle school gym. She said Hermann is an aggressive and fast team so Mexico needs to be ready for that again.

Along with that, Mudd believes Mexico did well defensively whenever Silex wasn’t taking advantage of a quick turnover. There were just a few possessions that could have been better.

“There were just a few times we weren’t quick enough to rotate and help each other and gave up some wide-open 3s,” Mudd said. “We weren’t in position on rebounds so we gave up a lot of second-chance points. Those are things I want to make sure we work on in practice and try to alleviate in the future.”