The Mexico girls spent a lot of time on offense on Tuesday.

That was because the defense netted them 25 steals to win 74-41 at North Central Missouri Conference and Class 4 District 8 rival Fulton (1-7, 0-3 NCMC). Grace Hudson led Mexico (6-7, 3-1 NCMC) with a career-high 31 points along with having eight steals and five assists while Scottie Smith tallied 14 points and 10 steals.

Head coach Makenzie Mudd said her players went back to school earlier in the day following winter break so she was worried about being too “lethargic” after the school day. She said that proved to not be much of a worry based on how Mexico played on defense.

Mexico at Fulton Photo Gallery

“We decided to bring that energy from the start,” Mudd said. “How can we create things for each other? So we worked on that press to force turnovers and create scoring opportunities for our teammates.”

Mexico wasn’t allowing Fulton much space to breathe and not much time to advance the ball past midcourt. Right after scoring one bucket, the Lady Bulldogs stole the ball in the backcourt for more points.

“That’s something we’ve been working on with our press,” Mudd said. “We’ve been struggling lately with stopping the ball. We’ve been letting teams get across halfcourt so we were working on how to force the ball to the sidelines and try to force those turnovers earlier. We did a really good job with that tonight.”

Hudson said that level of press defense doesn’t happen without good teamwork and communication. 

“As a team, we wanted it more,” Hudson said. “We wanted the steals, and we were very aggressive. We all worked together to trap and get to the next pass.”

Alyssa Miller finished with 16 points and seven rebounds, and Charleigh Douglas had nine points and five assists to give the Lady Bulldogs more solid performances to counter Ali Skinner’s 28 points and four 3-pointers for Fulton. However, everybody followed Hudson’s night on the court. 

Hudson said she has never scored that many points in a high school game before so she was “very shocked.” She drained two 3-pointers in the first quarter, which was all of her damage from the perimeter, but she was more dangerous in transition.

“It’s a lot of practice,” Hudson said about being in the right spot to score in transition. “I just know where I need to be. As a point guard, I know where they need to be so it reflects back on me knowing where I should be.”

Mudd said Hudson is “always hungry for the ball” and is “looking around trying to find that next steal.” She isn’t surprised by how well Hudson’s night went.

“We talked to her today about attacking the paint,” Mudd said. “We really wanted to work on attacking the lane and moving the ball inside out. She didn’t have as many 3-point looks, but she was able to get those inside looks.”

Mudd said Smith is always a tough defender because of her length so “keeping her arms wide” makes it “deceptive” to ball handlers. 

Douglas also benefitted from repeated opportunities in transition. The junior transfer from Macon was able to score and find others buckets as Mudd said she has looked more comfortable.

“She’s getting a lot scrappier and a lot more aggressive with the ball,” Mudd said. “She was a little timid at the beginning of the season trying to find her place. She’s getting a lot more confident and is becoming an important part of our offense.”

Hudson said she is grateful for her teammates and believes Mexico deserved the win before Mexico plays at Bowling Green (3-8) at 5:30 p.m. today. She said it is especially sweeter given it is the Lady Bulldogs’ second victory against Fulton this season. The first was a 61-25 win in the Montgomery County tournament. 

Mudd echoes Hudson’s sentiment about beating Fulton and wants to go for a “three-peat” with Mexico’s home meeting with Fulton later this season.

“This is a team that for the past few years, we’ve gone back-and-forth,” Mudd said. “It’s been a lot of that rivalry going through.”