The opening night jitters didn't hurt Mexico in the end.

The Lady Bulldogs had already defeated North Central Missouri Conference rival Moberly three times this season, but Tuesday's fourth meeting was different. In the first round of the Class 4 District 8 tournament in Mexico, they beat the Lady Spartans 58-43 to advance to Thursday's 7:15 p.m. semifinal game against another conference rival Fulton (10-15).

Mexico (13-13) trailed Moberly 22-18 at halftime. Claire Hudson is the team's leading scorer and is a senior, so she has been in many postseason games. Hudson finished with a triple-double of 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Still, she admitted the postseason nerves still affect and especially did the same to the young Lady Bulldogs team with two freshmen in the starting lineup.

"I told everybody to play together," Hudson said. "They're just as nervous as we are. We're on the same court right now. Play together and lift each other up. That's how we came out in the second half and got it together."

Hudson said Mexico does well playing "off each other." A lost turnover doesn't have to result into points for the other team as it could be a takeaway for the Lady Bulldogs, for example.

Head coach Makenzie Mudd said Mexico's strategy this time against Moberly (4-22) was based off the previous two meetings. 

"We had a really successful zone defense," Mudd said. "I knew that they would probably put in something to combat that. They did a good job of adapting to our zone, so we had to switch to man, which took us a little bit to get comfortable and get in the hang of."

Mudd said she started seeing defensive improvement by the end of the second quarter and into the third quarter. Mexico went on a 14-0 run in the third quarter that ended in a 46-34 lead for the Lady Bulldogs. 

The 28-12 third quarter in favor of Mexico was a series of repeated transition trips by the Lady Bulldogs. The freshmen Hudson thought had nerves going into the game started to come alive more in the second half. Alyssa Miller finished with 16 points, after scoring three points in the first half, Scottie Smith had all six of her points in the third quarter, and sophomore Payton Shaw added eight points and four rebounds in the game.

"They don't have true ball handlers so we focused on pressuring the ball," Hudson said. "That allowed us to get some turnovers that got us those fastbreaks. Once we got up the floor, the girls are really good about -- Alyssa and Scottie -- running the lanes well so I can just dump it off because they're all collapsed around me."

Olivia Dunwoody led Moberly with 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Ariyonna Gross followed with nine points.

Mudd said Mexico's ball movement is hard to stop once the team settles in, which most often ends up being in the second half. She complimented Hudson's teammates for making great cuts to the basket.

Hudson's calming presence in the locker room and on the court with her play is just what the Lady Bulldogs needed on this night, Mudd said.

"We all know she can score so having her also create opportunities for teammates to score and then going and get the rebounds so we have more opportunities is huge," Mudd said. "It shows how much she values giving the full team that opportunity to win."