Unlike other seasons, the Mexico boys started with a bigger opponent.

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Bigger in the sense that the Bulldogs faced reigning Class 6 District 7 champions Hickman to open the season Saturday in an earlier scheduled Gary Filbert Classic in Mexico. They lost to Hickman 69-62 despite cutting a 17-point deficit to eight points in the fourth quarter.

Head coach Darren Pappas said it is clear Hickman has plenty of size and speed just from simple observation. What wasn’t clear until game time was how hard the fight would be.

“We didn’t know how physical they were going to be,” Pappas said. “You can’t really see that on film. That physicality, we didn’t know it was going to come. They were really aggressive with their hedging on our ball screens and pushing us way out, slowing us down offensively in the half court.”

Mexico did put back some misses to stay within striking distance after the first quarter, trailing 16-11. Hickman took a 38-21 halftime lead on a half-court buzzer beater from Elijah Tatum, but the Bulldogs had many problems with another Kewpie.

Brock Camp, who was the final Gary Filbert Player of the Game of the seven-game schedule, finished with 29 points and eight rebounds. Camp was consistently difficult to guard and especially hard to stop inside. 

“We just got to do a better job defensively of getting back side help,” Pappas said. “In the first half, I felt like we didn’t do a very good job because we gave up a lot of transition buckets.”

However, Pappas doesn’t want to take anything away from his senior post player Holden Aulbur. Besides finishing with eight points, eight rebounds and two blocks, Pappas said he thought Aulbur did the “best job that he could” against the “force down low” Camp.

Aulbur gave Mexico about five players in double figures, following Jaydon Eldridge’s team-high 21 points, PJ Perkins’ 15 points and nine rebounds, and Charlie Fisher’s 14 points. While Kaden Benne had an off-night he is sure he’ll bounce back from, Pappas said a lot of his players performed to his offensive expectations, including Aulbur.

“We almost had four guys (scoring in double figures), and I think we can still get five guys,” Pappas said. “If (Aulbur) can get 8-12 a night, that would great while playing good defense and rebounding. That’s what we need him to do.”

Speaking of five guys, five Bulldogs were holding their ankles or lower legs and hobbling at some points during the game. Pappas said this could have resulted from that Hickman physicality but is likely another issue that can be corrected easily before the next game.

“We were cramping up too tonight,” Pappas said. “I don’t know if we weren’t hydrated enough or what. We run them all the time so it’s not like we weren’t in shape. I don’t know if we were in game shape yet. We’ll get our legs underneath us hopefully, and it will be a lot better.”