Macon was on the Mexico girls’ heels for most of Friday.

The Lady Bulldogs kept Macon on its toes by outscoring the Tigerettes 21-16 in the fourth quarter to win 61-50. Mexico closed the game with its biggest offensive quarter of the night.

Head coach Makenzie Mudd said Mexico (8-7) avoided the “silly mistakes” from the first three quarters to secure the game it led throughout — granted by one or two possessions. She said Mexico did well defending ball screens by getting through them to prevent easy layups on pick and rolls but needed to be better in transition.

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“We weren’t getting back on defense very well,” Mudd said. “We did better at turning around and just getting back no matter what in the fourth quarter to stop those easy and wide-open layups. We also had not-so-smart passes into defense, but we cut that down a lot in the fourth quarter.”

Alyssa Miller led Mexico with 17 points, Grace Hudson had 15 points and nine rebounds, Payton Shaw finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds, and Scottie Smith had 11 points and seven rebounds.

Smith finished on a couple of transition possessions for Mexico in the fourth quarter, including a 3-point play she was able to cap at the free throw line while Macon (6-8) was behind by one or two possessions. She said she thought that play was a “big turning point” as everybody was “pumped up” at that moment, including Miller and Landri Teel, who pat Smith on the back after the make.

“The press gets us going and gets us active and everywhere,” Smith said. “Once we get the steal and we get the shot up and we make it, it makes everybody keep going and makes it a way better atmosphere.”

Smith refers to defense as her “main position” on the court. She said she tries to be “everywhere” and executes a consistent defensive strategy.

“I’m looking at their belly button, and I’m following them everywhere,” Smith said. “That’s where I mainly look because they can go without the ball, but they can’t go without their belly button.”

Mexico had five girls score in the fourth quarter, including Madison Bickell with all five of her points. Mudd said Bickell has “a ton of speed” and had the confidence to back it up in a fourth quarter that began with a 40-34 lead for the Lady Bulldogs. 

The Lady Bulldogs looked much different on offense in the fourth quarter as they regularly cut through the lane to score. In the first quarter, Miller hit two 3-pointers to help them escape the first quarter with a 12-9 lead. 

“We were shying away from the contact, not wanting to attack the paint,” Mudd said. “Once we started doing that, we found more success.”

Smith said Mexico was also doing better grabbing rebounds inside in the fourth quarter. Shaw put back several misses, and Smith did as well, leaping back to snag a ball behind her head for the second-chance bucket. 

“I reached as far as I could,” Smith said about that offensive putback. “That’s definitely our worst area, which we’re working on.”

Mexico plays at Hallsville (3-11) at 7:30 p.m. tonight, hoping to extend its season-high win streak to four games. The Lady Bulldogs have won five of their last six games, and Mudd said they recently have been wanting to clean up their defense.

“We had two really big wins (at Fulton and at Bowling Green),” Mudd said. “We got to do a lot of things that we weren’t able to do in other games. So this week, we knew we had to clean up some stuff and use the good things that we did in those games and really build on that.”