Mexico took some lumps early on Wednesday.

Mexico at Fulton Photo Gallery

The Lady Bulldogs struggled shooting in the first half, trailing 22-13 before losing 56-48 at North Central Missouri Conference and district rival Fulton. Starter Scottie Smith had to be taken out after one half due to being elbowed on the head to further thin a lineup already without starter Grace Hudson for the rest of the season.

Other than those bits of adversity, head coach Makenzie Mudd said the offense wasn’t as sharp as it could possibly be in the first half.

“We weren’t moving the ball in the first half,” Mudd said. “We had a lot of standing around and waiting for things to happen instead of moving around and making things happen.”

Mexico (8-10, 2-3 NCMC) was short on several of its shots in the first half but started knocking some down from long range in the second half. Alyssa Miller had a team-high 19 points and scored 17 of those points while hitting all four of her 3-pointers in the second half. Thanks to Miller’s hot shooting, Mexico shrank its double-digit deficit to two points twice in the third quarter.

Mudd said leading scorer Claire Hudson had a quiet scoring night with seven points as a result of the diamond-and-one defense Fulton (7-12, 2-3 NCMC) used to shut her down. Hudson added six rebounds and six assists to help out and create shots for others like Miller.

“We knew they were going to try and shut down Claire, which they did and left Alyssa pretty open,” Mudd said. “She had the confidence to step up and shoot the ball. Once she makes one, she gets a lot more comfortable, and she’s ready to go.”

Scottie Smith finished with a solid night of 10 points and seven rebounds, but that all had to be done in one half after being struck on the head on a foul that wasn’t called, leaving a bump on her forehead. Mudd said the team is worried Smith has a concussion and hopes Mexico can have one of its better scorers and rebounders back as soon as possible.

Fulton’s leading scorer Audrey Arnold grabbed seven rebounds and registered two blocks in the first half but only had six points at halftime. Arnold hit all three of her 3-pointers in the second half to eventually finish with a game-high 23 points and keep Mexico just an arm’s length away. Dezteni Galbreath-Chambers followed with 15 points and eight rebounds, and Alison Skinner had 14 points.

“We weren’t closing out to the perimeter shots very well,” Mudd said. “We were getting there but weren’t getting close enough to make them question their shots. A lot of times, we got real close and gave up a 3-pointer on their next possession.”

Mudd said the Lady Bulldogs were likely tired after being forced to rearrange minutes to account for injuries, but they need to figure out how to turn all of these close losses into wins. Mexico’s fourth straight loss happens to also be its fourth straight single-digit loss, moving the team’s record in such games to 3-8.

Mexico still has a chance to pick up a conference and district victory around 6 p.m. Friday at home for its Courtwarming game against Moberly (41-4, 1-4 NCMC). Mudd said closing out the games better can happen with stronger starts.

“We’re going to keep working on those defensive faults at the end and try to move the ball better in the first half,” Mudd said. “We’re definitely a second-half team, and I want that to bleed over the first half some more so we can find some success.”