Macon girls basketball coach Richard Driscoll is a tough man to please on defense.

But as the Tigerettes held Mexico to 18 points in the second half on Monday’s Macon Tournament title game — and eight in the fourth quarter — he didn’t have many grumbles. The win marks Macon’s first home tournament championship since 2013.

“Man, I can’t complain,” said Driscoll following his team’s 59-43 win over Mexico. “I can sit here and find things because that’s just how I’m wired, but I tried not to. I went down (to the locker room) and said, ‘Hey, I’m proud of you.’ They did some really great things in the second half, they really did. We played good defense, got some rebounds, and that was the key of the game. I thought the whole night if we could rebound the way we did, we had a shot at winning.

“I knew if we got defensive rebounds, we could beat them up the floor.”

And that was the whole story of the second half. Mexico (9-5) was the much bigger team, and that size was tough to stop early on. The Bulldogs led 13-11 after the first quarter following a go-ahead 3-pointer at the buzzer from Rachel Kristofferson.

Aside from leading in points after one quarter, the Bulldogs also led in fouls, 6-2. So even though they had size on the Tigerettes, the Bulldogs grew hesitant as the game went on. And as Macon (11-4) picked up more turnovers and stopped more shots, its speed shone with tons of layups in transition.

“Speed really killed us,” Mexico coach Ed Costley said. “I think that was the biggest issue for us. We weren’t able to contain the ball off the dribble, and they were always getting downhill. We were hesitant to make a move to get past anyone and they did a really good job with their triangle-and-two defense, shutting down Mya (Miller) and Reghan Smith and keeping them contained. … Couldn’t defend really well off the dribble and then we couldn’t get our prime go-tos open.”

Despite scoring just one point through the first three minutes of the second quarter, Macon hit its stride in the final five. The Tigerettes scored 14 points in the final five minutes and a pair of free throws from Kate Hawkins gave them a 26-25 lead going into halftime.

From there the Tigerettes pounced on the Bulldogs. Macon was poised to push its lead into double figures during the third quarter, but the Bulldogs kept fighting right back to remain close. But that all gave way in the fourth.

Macon sophomore guard Shelby Petre converted an and-one with about 6:40 left in the game to give her team a double-digit lead. Macon came right back, and senior Katie Richardson collected an offensive rebound and put it back for two points. Then Petre delivered another layup through contact, unable to convert the free throw, before burying a 3-pointer with about five minutes left in the contest.

Peter finished with a game-high 19 points, and her eight points in the fourth equaled Mexico as a team.

Truman softball commit Logan Blevins was the only Bulldog to hit double figures on the night as she scored 13 points.

Mexico is scheduled to play at Moberly on Tuesday in North Central Missouri Conference action.