The Mexico girls had Marshall breathing down their necks on Monday at home.

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After taking a 47-35 lead into the fourth quarter, the Lady Bulldogs only led 48-47 in the fourth quarter but defeated North Central Missouri Conference Marshall 58-47. Mexico went 10-2 in the closing minutes to beat Marshall for the second time this season after a 63-40 win on the road earlier.

Head coach Makenzie Mudd said Marshall (5-15, 1-5 NCMC) hung around through one half by only trailing 30-29 at the intermission. The second-half defense helped keep the Lady Owls at bay enough.

“We switched up our defense in the third quarter,” Mudd said. “We were getting a little flat on the zone, giving up some opportunities, so we switched into that man.”

Mudd said the man-on-man defense triggered turnovers and easy buckets for Mexico (10-10, 4-3 NCMC) off of 16 steals. The Lady Bulldogs put their conference foe into a hole after outscoring Marshall 17-6 in the third quarter. 

Mexico’s three leading scorers also happened to be the team’s leaders in steals. Claire Hudson had a game-high 22 points along with 12 rebounds, five assists and four steals, Scottie Smith followed with 15 points, five rebounds and four steals and Alyssa Miller had 12 points, five rebounds, five steals and four assists. 

“We tried to disrupt them, and I think it worked out pretty well,” Mudd said. “We forced a lot of turnovers and got some steals at the right time to get some fastbreak layups.”

Smith said, while offense was better in the first half, and the defense was there at the right times to give Mexico an edge. Stops down the stretch preceded Miller knocking down a key 3-pointer and Hudson spinning into a fastbreak layup.

“We would get back occasionally,” Smith said. “The help side was better in the second half.”

Mudd said Hudson is clearly receiving more attention from opposing defenses and has been using the opportunity to set up her teammates more. However, this doesn’t just apply to her.

After Hudson, the next active highest scorers for the Lady Bulldogs are Smith and Miller. The two freshmen already bring much chemistry to the team and have demonstrated that this season.

“They do a good job of reading each other and have that instinct of where the other is going to be,” Mudd said.

Smith said her history on the court with Miller spans back to before middle school, around when they were 10 years old playing on a travel ball team at Community R-6. She likes when they are able to help each other score.

“It makes you feel like you have such a great connection,” Smith said. “It really amps me whenever we get to pass to each other and both do something good. It really gets me going.”

Brooklynn Davenport led Marshall with 18 points and nine rebounds, and Saniya Powell followed with 12 points. Davenport, in particular, presented the biggest problem but did most of her damage in the first half with 12 points. Still, Mudd would like some areas better before hosting Class 3 No. 3 Centralia (21-1) at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

“We gave her too many opportunities on the inside and did not box out the way I was hoping we would,” Mudd said. “That’s something we definitely need to work on before tomorrow night.”