Thursday might not have been the best possible opening game the Mexico boys could have had.

Mexico vs Kirksville Districts Photo Gallery

It was a 54-46 victory regardless in the Class 4 District 8 semifinals in Centralia against North Central Missouri Conference foe Kirksville, securing a place in a district championship game for the third time in four years. After not competing for over a week and eventually tying a season-low, Jaydon Eldridge and PJ Perkins helped close the game for Mexico with a combined 27 points in the second half.

Perkins scored all 12 of his points in the latter two quarters, and Eldridge dumped in 11 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, hitting two of his four 3-pointers to add to his five rebounds. Kirksville stayed within striking distance by trailing 22-15 at halftime and 35-29 heading into the fourth quarter.

“I just knew it could be our last game and could be our last game for our seniors,” Eldridge said. “I just put it all on the line.”

“They put us on their backs,” head coach Darren Pappas said. “We wanted this one really bad to get to that championship game.”

Both teams weren’t budging defensively on the interior in the first quarter so Eldridge’s two perimeter shots then gave the Bulldog offense a lift. The Tigers, in particular, didn’t give Mexico much space.

“We could tell they were being really physical,” Eldridge said. “The referees weren’t calling anything so we just had to battle through it and play as hard as we could.”

This style of play explained why the pace of the game slowed so much and made Mexico encounter a type of game they hadn’t seen as frequently. The Bulldogs scored with their fastbreak a few times but needed to mostly rely on Perkins inside and Eldridge from midrange. Point guard and leading scorer DJ Long didn’t score in the second half but finished with 11 points and five assists to give Mexico its third double-digit scorer.

Pappas said Kirksville was able to call on its shooters to keep the Tigers in the game. Kirksville tallied eight 3-pointers, with five of them being hit in the second half. Cole Kelly and Justin McKim, who led Kirksville with 15 points and 13 points, respectively, each drained three 3-pointers. McKim added nine rebounds, and Gavin Pike had 12 points.

“They were doing a good job of getting back in transition and stopping our transition game,” Pappas said. “Obviously, when they hit shots like that, it’s hard to get it in and get going. We usually get long rebounds, get kickouts or steals and deflections. We didn’t get very many of those tonight, but it’s playoff basketball. You just got to find a way to get the job done.”

Eldridge said it was clear how determined Kirksville was after losing 62-61 and then 69-41 to Mexico this season but was glad the Bulldogs paid the Tigers back for a 66-62 season-ending loss last season in the district semifinals. 

Pappas said the Bulldogs went into Thursday plenty rested but the drawback was they hadn’t played a game in more than a week after receiving a bye as the No. 1 seed. He said Mexico will hopefully have more rust off after having to wait just two days for a rematch with Centralia — who the Bulldogs beat 56-41 this season in Centralia — (17-11) in the district title game, a right his team earned after a tough test in the semifinals.

“We just tried to contest as many threes and run them off the 3-point line as much as possible,” Pappas said. “We had some miscommunication at times that led to some easy buckets for them. We’ve got to clean those up. I don’t know if it’s just a big layover from the last time we played since it’s been over a week. We’ll look at the film and see where we can get better defensively and offensively.”