Mexico girls basketball hopes to be quick and stingy this season.

The Lady Bulldogs will be lacking the post presence they’ve had in recent years so they want to make use of the players they have this season under first-year head coach, who is an alum and assistant coach for several years Makenzie Mudd.

“Post is where we are lacking this season,” Mudd said. “Our three big post players from last season are all not present right there so we’re trying to fill those roles with some younger players. Overall, we’re pretty young with our experience level of varsity this year.”

Senior Capri’Ona Fountain and Messiah Simpson graduated and junior McKenzie Taylor had ankle surgery and might or might not return in January. Mudd said sophomores Landri Teel and Hannah Loyd are post players who have looked good in practice and will be expected to shoulder more minutes this year.

Mexico does have some speed to make up for the lack of size like with returning leading scorer and junior Claire Hudson, returning starter and senior Jo Thurman, senior Karlee Sefrit, junior Kenley Jones, and freshman Grace Hudson. Seniors Kylie Burnett and Addison Heim also played quite a bit of minutes a year ago and will be expected to lead the team this year.

“We’re playing around with some different offensive strategies to take advantage of our heavier guard set and try to work around the fact we’re not going to be as a big as some of the other teams we’re playing,” Mudd said. “We’re going to try to get some more movement on the offensive side to find some easier shot opportunities without those post players.”

The additional speed for Mexico this year hopes to make up for the lack of varsity experience, Mudd said, as the junior varsity game isn’t as fast as varsity. Mudd is also a person who has already talked about the importance of defense and believes Mexico can be a good defensive team.

“Looking at the points we were able to score last season and the points that we gave up, we were not a very high-scoring team as a whole last year,” Mudd said. “My hope is, if we can spend some more time slowing down the other teams, maybe that will make up for that differential of us not being able to put as many points on the board.”

The Lady Bulldogs were 9-18 a season ago with a 5-4 North Central Missouri Conference record in their first losing season in six years. Mudd looks at Mexico’s potential this year as being better than that and able to defeat opponents from a season ago that also lost key players.

“My hope is to get a few more conference wins than last year,” Mudd said. “We may have some struggles, but I think other teams will too.”