The Mexico girls felt the pressure early from their opponent Saturday night in the Gary Filbert Classic.
The Lady Bulldogs lost 47-23 to the state-ranked Lady Bulldogs — Class 2 No. 10 …
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The Mexico girls felt the pressure early from their opponent Saturday night in the Gary Filbert Classic.
The Lady Bulldogs lost 47-23 to the state-ranked Lady Bulldogs — Class 2 No. 10 — in the sixth game played at the Mexico Sports Complex. Harrisburg (7-3) finished with about 23 steals, including a team-high eight by Brecca Thornhill and four from leading scorer and Player of the Game Emma Fischer.
Fischer finished with 16 points and five rebounds, and Carli Ellis had 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks while Mexico (3-7) was led by seven points from Jo Thurman. Kenzie Taylor was Mexico’s next-highest scorer with points, and Claire Hudson and Kierstan Epperson each had five rebounds.
“They were just physical with us and on the ball,” head coach Ed Costley said. “Offensively, we couldn’t get to the spots we wanted off the dribble. They were just that physical with us and kept moving us off of spots. We couldn’t even get there and kept us from getting in a flow on offense.”
Costley said it was like Harrisburg was “dictating” where Mexico was going to go rather than the ideal opposite.
This was enough to put the Lady Bulldogs in too big of a hole as Harrisburg closed the first half on a 12-0 run for a 30-10 halftime lead. Mexico played a closer game in the second half, being outscored 17-13, as its defense gave Harrisburg more trouble in the second half.
A little more than four minutes into the game, Harrisburg had six steals and an 8-2 lead. Mexico had three field goals in the first quarter but were unable to shoot more than that due to the press defense.
Harrisburg’s offense wasn’t as potent in the third quarter and mainly scored points in the fastbreak. Mexico being unable to answer let Harrisburg keep a comfortable lead. Costley said his team hasn’t put together as many runs this season — even the 6-0 variety — so Mexico needs to execute better so opponents don’t create runs off their mistakes.
“Once the third quarter came along, we started overthinking things instead of just taking what was in front of us,” Costley said. “There were several times in that third quarter we missed quite a few little layups. In the third or fourth quarter, we missed several layups. When you miss those, usually that turns into points pretty fast.”
Thurman found Karlee Sefrit for a layup to beat the buzzer at the end of the third quarter, making it 40-14 Harrisburg. In the fourth quarter, Thurman hit Mexico’s only 3-pointer in the game.
Mexico hosted Boonville on Tuesday night before playing the Moberly Area Community College Shootout at 5 p.m. Dec. 30 against Van-Far (2-6).
