Mexico trailed 35-20 at the half.

 The Bulldogs beat Kirksville 60-47 in December, but after a rough second quarter on Saturday, they trailed the Tigers in the championship contest of the Macon tournament.

 “They got some stops and then got out in transition and scored some easy buckets,” said head coach Darren Pappas. “And they hit a lot of perimeter shots in the second quarter as well.”

 The Tigers knocked down four 3-pointers in the second quarter, and on the other side, they sagged off defensively and forced the Bulldogs to take outside shots that weren’t falling.

 Pappas pointed out the disparity at the half and encouraged his team to be more aggressive attacking the bucket.

 “Quit settling for perimeter shots and let’s try to get downhill as much as possible to the rim,” Pappas told his team.

 The Bulldogs also tightened things up defensively and came out in the second half looking like a different team.

 The third quarter started with a flurry.

 Michael White got the Bulldogs going with a driving layup through contact.

 Isaiah Reams hit a nifty up-and-under reverse layup.

 Jordan Shelton scored on a hard-driving layup.

 Mexico applied pressure defensively and then utilized its speed to get by Kirksville defenders and methodically cut away at the lead.

 Shelton led the charge for the Bulldogs, routinely blowing by Kirksville defenders and getting to the rack. He went the length of the court and scored to cut the Tigers’ lead to seven, then scored on a hop-thru layup to trim the difference to five.

 “He was able to create off the dribble and did some really good things for us in the second half,” Pappas said of Shelton. “And then our interior passing got a lot better between Daeye [Miller] and Michael [White].”

 Mexico outscored Kirksville 18-6 in the third to enter the final frame down just three, 41-38, and they continued to dismantle the Tigers.

 The Bulldogs took a 42-41 lead with 7:17 left in fourth and their high-energy play allowed them to pull away.

 Shelton snagged a loose ball, drove between two defenders and went up, switching hands from right to left and finishing through contact, completing the three-point play to lead 58-51 with just over two minutes remaining.

 He followed that with a steal and an underhand dime to Miller, who finished inside.

 Shelton helped spark the Bulldogs’ furious comeback—Miller put the cherry on top late in the fourth.

 The senior came up with back-to-back steals and capped each of them off with dunks. First, a steal and a two-handed jam as Kirksville attempted to bring the ball up. Then, a steal at midcourt and a free drive to the bucket for a one-handed slam.

 The Mexico crowd roared as the Bulldogs’ lead swelled to 64-51 and the game was effectively over, with the scoreboard later reading 64-54 as time expired.

 Shelton led the Bulldogs with 19 points, Reams and Miller each scored 13, White added 12 and D.J. Long and Donye Nunnelly added five and two, respectively.   

 Mexico made its way to the championship contest by handling Marceline 75-31 on Monday and then drubbing the host Macon Tigers 80-50 on Wednesday.

 “We started off not very good defensively,” Pappas said of Monday’s contest. “It was 19-16 after the first quarter, but then we cranked it up in the second quarter and really challenged the guys to be better defenders overall.”

 From there, Mexico held Marceline to just five points in the second quarter, five in the third and five in the fourth to go on to a blowout win. The Bulldogs also got scoring contributions from 10 different players.

 White led the team with 14, Reams scored 13, Miller added 12, Shelton and Anthony Shivers each scored eight, Kanye Nunnelly and Donye Nunnelly notched six and five, respectively, Long added four and Jaydon Eldridge and Dominic McKeown scored three and two, respectively.

 Wednesday night’s game played out in similar fashion.

 Mexico led Macon 39-30 at halftime, but again the Bulldogs were able to turn it on in the second half to pull away for an 80-50 win to earn their spot in the championship game.

 “It was another one of those at halftime, sending them the message that we’ve got to be better defensively,” said Pappas. “And kind of challenged them ... and they just bought in and only gave up 20 points total in the second half.”

 White led the Bulldogs with a career-high 20 points, Shelton scored 17, Reams finished with 15, Miller added eight, Peyton Willer and Long scored six, Shivers chipped in five and Eldridge knocked down a three.

 Mexico was scheduled to play at Boonville on Monday, but results were unavailable at press time.

 The Bulldogs then host Kirksville on Friday, in the third matchup between the two North Central Missouri Conference squads this season.

 “We know that they’re going to make some adjustments and we’ve got to make some adjustments as well,” said Pappas.

 “Mainly for us, offensively I feel like we’ve got to do a better job of adjusting to them sagging in the paint,” he continued. “And we’ve got to be better shooters from the perimeter, and that’s just going to take a lot of reps in practice over the next week.”