The Montgomery County Invitational Tournament boys championship trophy returned to Mexico High School on Dec. 6.

The Mexico Bulldogs won their seventh Montgomery County title and their fourth in six years after cruising to a 75-44 victory over the host-Montgomery County Wildcats in the championship game at MCHS’ Ballew & Snell Court.

“It definitely feels good to bring it back to Mexico,” Mexico senior Kaden Benne said. “It’s something that we set our sights on at the beginning of the season.” 

A year ago, the Bulldogs lost to the Wildcats 70-56 in the title game. On Dec. 6, Mexico avenged the 2024 loss to Montgomery County by storming to a 12-1 first-quarter lead it never relinquished.

With the win, Mexico is tied with New Haven for the third-most championships at the Montgomery County tournament.

The Bulldogs won their first Montgomery County title in 2010. Since that year, Mexico has won more tournament championships than any other school. It also came out on top in 2011, 2012, 2020, 2021 and 2023.

Mexico coach Darren Pappas said the Montgomery County tournament is a great event to start its season. The Bulldogs finished 3-0 in the tournament, winning all of their games by an average margin of 29 points per game.

“It’s a high quality tournament,” Pappas said. “(Montgomery County athletic director) Adam Falloon does a great job of running the tournament smoothly and getting quality teams in here. We’re thankful to be part of it.”

The Bulldogs, the No. 1 seed, began tournament play on Dec. 2 with a 72-35 win over New Haven in the first round. They knocked off Bowling Green 63-42 in the semifinals on Dec. 4 to advance to the championship game. 

With the win over sixth-seeded Montgomery County, Mexico improved to 3-1. The Bulldogs bounced back from 59-58 loss to Smith-Cotton in the season-opening Gary Filbert Classic on Nov. 22.

Mexico was scheduled to play a home game against Marshall on Nov. 9. It will play a road game against Eugene on Dec. 12.

The Bulldogs are now setting their sights on finishing with their seventh straight winning season. Last year, they finished 23-7, captured a North Central Conference title and won their second straight district championship.

“We have to take it one conference game at a time, but we want to be able to compete for a conference championship,” Pappas said. “Obviously, a conference championship would mean a lot to us, but that’s over the course of the season. That means we’ve been playing well. Hopefully, we’ll play our best basketball as we get into February and the first part of March and try to compete for a district title.”

The Bulldogs had three players in double figures in the win over the Wildcats in the Montgomery County finals. Charlie Fisher scored 16 points, followed by Benne with 15 and Kinser Groves with 13.

Benne earned all-tournament MVP honors. He scored 54 points in three games. He finished with 23 against Bowling Green and 16 against New Haven.

The senior gave the Bulldogs a 12-1 lead by scoring a basket with 4:23 left in the first quarter.

“He’s stepping up and being that senior leader that we need,” Pappas said. “Obviously, we know he’s a gifted offensive scorer, but I really like what he’s doing defensively. He’s rebounding at a high level and shooting the three-ball when he has good looks. I feel like he’s taking looks that are within the rhythm of our offense.”

Fisher was named on the all-tournament team after scoring a team-high 56 points. He had 20-point efforts against Bowling Green and New Haven.

“He’s a senior leader, our point guard and our floor general,” Pappas said. “He kind of gets everybody in the right places and he calms us down when we need that calm player if we’re getting rattled or anything. We trust him with the ball in his hands to make the right play and the right reads.”

In the finals, the Bulldogs defeated a Montgomery County team that pulled off upset victories over No. 3 Fatima and No. 2 Fulton in the first round and semifinals, respectively.

“We didn’t take them lightly,” Benne said. “You can be beaten in any game, so we all had to come out here and work hard. We have to rebound and play defense. That’s why we won the game.”

Mexico led 22-11 after the first quarter and 36-21 at halftime. The 75 points marked a season high for the Bulldogs.

“I thought our guys did a great job getting after Montgomery defensively, trying to hold them to one shot and out,” Pappas said. “We did a good job on the boards. On the offensive end, we did a good job of crashing the boards and getting second and third opportunities and being the finish around the rim. That was key.”