Forty years ago, the Mexico Bulldogs were the first champions of the Montgomery County Girls Invitational, beating the Montgomery County Wildcats 62-46 in the title game.

Now, Mexico has more tournament championships than any other school.

The Bulldogs captured their 12th title and their first since 2010 after knocking off Montgomery County 45-36 in the championship game on Dec. 4. They finished 3-0 in the eight-team tournament.

“It means so much because we lost to Hermann in the championship last year,” Mexico senior Mya Miller said. “So we came back and we showed them who we really are. I think we really played amazing as a team.”

Before the tournament began, Mexico was tied with Hermann for the most tournament titles with 11. Besides 1981, 2010 and 2021, the Bulldogs also came out on top in 1984, 1986-87, 1994-96, 2000 and 2002.

“To say you won the Montgomery County Tournament title is a good thing to hang on your hat and kind of enjoy it and let it build from there,” Mexico coach Ed Costley said.

This year’s championship was special to the senior class of Miller, Riley Thurman, Taylor Demint and Ruby Haefling.

“If you want to play basketball and just work through hard work and never quit, I’ll always put my money on this group,” Mexico coach Ed Costley said. “I think it’s something that they’re really going to enjoy.”

The Bulldogs improved to 3-1 with the victory over Montgomery County in the finals. They were scheduled to play a home game on Dec. 7 against Marshall.

Mexico started its tournament play on Nov. 29 with a 39-23 victory over Wellsville-Middletown in a first-round game. The Bulldogs knocked off New Haven 43-35 in the semifinals on Dec. 1 to advance to the championship game for the second year in a row.

“Basically, the first two games were on the rough side, to say the least,” Miller said. “So we went to practice and worked on our defense. Defense has always been our strongpoint of the game because our defense leads into our offense. We really buckled down on defense.”

Down 18-16 late in the second quarter, Mexico responded with a 14-3 run that carried into the third quarter. Sophomore Jordyn Thurman scored a layup with 2:04 left in the second to give the Bulldogs a 20-18 lead they would never relinquish.

Mexico extended its lead to 45-29 in the fourth quarter after going on a 10-0 run.

“I think the energy of our students and our fans really helped that,” Miller said. “The energy in the building was crazy.”

Costley said strong defense was one of the keys to his team’s win. The Bulldogs held the Wildcats to just one 3-pointer. Montgomery County hit nine treys in its first two tournament games.

“We kind of outworked them a little bit on the loose balls and the boards,” Costley said. “But we really focused on the 3-point line. We wanted to make sure they didn’t get more than four 3-pointers in the game. Defensively, the effort was there.”

Miller was the Bulldogs’ lone representative on the all-tournament team. She scored 37 in three games. Miller finished with 13 against Wellsville-Middletown and Montgomery County and 11 against New Haven.

Riley Thurman finished with 16 points – including 10 in the second half – to lead Mexico in the finals against Montgomery County. She finished with 34 points in the tournament.