KIRKSVILLE — A win Tuesday over Mexico could have clinched a North Central Missouri Conference title for the Kirksville boys basketball team.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the team that put itself atop the conference leaderboard with excellent play was not the team that showed up on Tuesday night, as the Bulldogs left Kirksville with a 70-64 win.

Mexico (10-10) was the scrappier and more physical team — and the more focused, too. The Bulldogs scored a ton of baskets in transition, getting around Kirksville’s (18-4) defense for quality looks. Kirksville coach Tyler Martin said that was all effort, a category Mexico dominated.

“When they punched us, we didn’t have enough to punch back with,” Martin said.

Part of Mexico’s energy came from vengeance, as the Bulldogs wanted to avenge two previous losses to Kirksville. The Tigers won a 75-69 meeting Jan. 25 and then claimed a 68-63 win at Mexico six days later.

Those are two close losses for the Bulldogs, which have been a common occurrence this year. Of their 10 losses, seven have come by six points or fewer. So coach Darren Pappas was happy to stop that trend Tuesday night.

“We’ve been in so many close games throughout the season, so it just feels good to be on the other side and not let it slip away,” Pappas said.

The Bulldogs carried a 53-51 lead into the fourth quarter, but the team bench was given a technical foul before the final period could start. Kirksville’s Dylan Kinney, who had a game-high 21 points, knocked down both free throws to tie the game before any time ticked off, and then Ryan Ball sunk a layup to put the Tigers up 55-53.

The score was back-and-forth from there. Kirksville point guard Paxton Dempsey buried a 3-pointer before the three-minute mark, cutting Mexico’s lead to 62-60. Dempsey came back a minute and a half later with a steal and layup to tie the game at 62, but Mexico’s defense stood tall, holding the Tigers to four points in the final three minutes.

Though the score flipped quite a few times, Martin thought Mexico controlled momentum the whole game.

“We were on our heels all night. I mean, they pushed the ball down our throat as soon as they got the ball out of the net when we did make it,” Martin said. “When we did execute something on offense, they were ready to push it back down on us. We weren’t prepared for that and there’s no reason why.”

Drew Blevins led Mexico with 17 points and, along with Raef Yager, played solid defense on Kirksville’s Noah Copeland. The Bulldogs did everything they could to pack the paint and limit Copeland, who finished with eight points.

Pappas knew that would allow the Tigers to get 3-point shots up, but he felt the Bulldogs would be fine as long as they contested those opportunities.

Kirksville hit its fair share of shots, but not enough to win the game. Yager added 15 points for Mexico and Zach Watkins had 14.

“This is big for our ballclub,” Pappas said. “We’re back to .500 now. We’ve won eight of our last 11 and we beat the top team who’s beaten us twice. So this is huge momentum for us as we get ready for districts.”

Districts loom on the horizon just about two weeks away for both teams, who are grouped up in Class 4 District 8. The Bulldogs host that district, too, which now gives the Bulldogs a lot of momentum heading into a potential fourth game.

Kirksville should get the top seed in the district, and the Bulldogs are battling with Fulton for the No. 2 spot. Mexico will see Hannibal, Moberly and Fulton before the regular season ends, hoping it can get more momentum rolling.

And the Tigers hope to get back to what they did right in their first two meetings against Mexico and not so much the third one.

“I’d like to think beating them twice means something,” Martin said. “It’s not just what we did in this last game. And that’s probably the stuff that, if we do see them again, we’ll harp on. But really, the corrections from tonight should be easy ones to make.”