The Mexico Lady Bulldogs had a chance to leave Montgomery County High School with some hardware on Dec. 7 when they took on the host-Wildcats in the third-place game of the Montgomery County Invitational tournament.

But Montgomery County had other ideas.

The Lady Bulldogs lost 49-37 to the Lady Wildcats (2-2) to finish fourth at the eight-team tournament. They finished 1-2 at the tournament and dropped to 2-3 overall.

Mexico, which is tied with Hermann for the most tournament championships with 12, placed fourth in the Montgomery County tournament for the third time. Head coach Makenzie Mudd said even though her team fell one place short from a trophy, she wasn’t disappointed with the team’s finish.

“I’m pretty happy with the efforts that I saw,” Mudd said. “It’s early in the season, so this is definitely a tournament in which we’re trying to figure out mixes of players and figure out who is going to fit in where. I think that even though we lost this game (against Montgomery County), it’s a good game for us as far as what we were able to put together and some things that we were able to accomplish so we can take for the rest of the season.”

The Wildcats, who won last year’s tournament, defeated Mexico with just seven players in uniform. Freshman Emma Rodgers led Montgomery County with 25 points and sophomore Aubrey Janes earned all-tournament honors.

“This tournament is always one where I think they have such an advantage being the home team,” Mudd said. “They always have a good crowd. No matter how many they have, I feel like (Montgomery County) Coach (Joe) Basinger does a really good job of keeping them disciplined and energetic. He has some good shooters and they did a good job of capitalizing on our mistakes.”

The third-place game had eight ties. A free throw from Montgomery County sophomore Khloe Kribbs with 25.7 seconds left in the third quarter broke a 31-31 tie and gave the Wildcats the lead for good. MCHS, the No. 3 seed, outscored fourth-seeded Mexico 17-6 in the fourth quarter.

Mudd said her team had foul trouble for most of the contest. The Wildcats went 12-for-16 from the free-throw line.

“We gave up way too many points off of free throws,” Mudd said.

Sophomore Grace Hudson was the Lady Bulldogs’ leading scorer with 28 points in three games. She scored a team-high 10 points against Montgomery County.

Mexico began tournament play on Dec. 2 with a 48-36 win over fifth-seeded New Haven. Senior Claire Hudson finished with 17 points and Grace Hudson had 12.

“That one was difficult for us,” Mudd said. “Last year, they beat us pretty big in this tournament, so we knew coming in that it was not going to be easy for us. We had to do a good job of battling their 1-1-3 defense which is something we don’t see very often. So we had to look for different shot opportunities. I think we did a great job in doing that in pressuring their players to force turnovers.”

Two nights later, the Lady Bulldogs lost to top-seeded and eventual champion Clopton 56-35 in the semifinals. Junior Landri Teel led Mexico with 13 points.

“Clopton was hard,” Mudd said. “They’re a really strong team. There is a reason they’re the No. 1 seed. They gave us a pretty good run. I do think we let it get a little bit out of hand in the second half. We could have had a closer game with them.”

The Lady Bulldogs finished 1-2 at the Montgomery County tournament for the third year in a row. They lost in the consolation finals in each of the last two years but achieved their best tournament finish since winning it in 2021.