For two quarters, the Mexico boys felt like they played Bulldog basketball.

Mexico vs Moberly District Photo Gallery

They will look for a four-quarter effort at 7:30 p.m. today against Kirksville after eliminating another North Central Missouri Conference foe Moberly 74-59 on Monday in the first round of the Class 4 District 8 tournament in Moberly. The No. 3 seed Bulldogs (18-9) outscored No. 6 Moberly 48-24 in the second and fourth quarters but were outscored 35-26 by the Spartans (3-23) in the first and third quarters.

“Defensively, I thought we weren’t very good at times,” head coach Darren Pappas said. “Offensively, we didn’t move the ball as well as I’d like us to. When we did move the ball, it looked really good. Give our guys credit. They dug deep and found a way.”

Pappas said the emphasis for Mexico was rebounding and being active with hands on defense. He said these areas weren’t as sharp outside of the second and fourth quarters.

When Mexico had time running out in each half, it clung to a 25-22 lead with just less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter before the Bulldogs barraged Moberly in transition to lead 37-24 at halftime. The Spartans cut into Mexico’s lead to 49-42 after the third quarter and 57-51 with about five minutes left thanks to a pair of Derieus Wallace 3-pointers as part of his team-high 13 points. DJ Long and Jordan Shelton combined for 23 points in the fourth quarter to counter.

Long led Mexico with 31 points, finishing 8-for-10 at the free throw line, and Shelton followed with 23 points, six steals, three 3-pointers and three dunks.

“I thought they were able to attack the rim off the dribble,” Pappas said. “They were finishing around the rim. Both have really good body control when they get up in the air and they get bumped or hit. We got some and-ones to go down and we were able to make some free throws as well.”

Long said the Bulldogs were at their best when they played as a team in the second and fourth quarters and need to do that if they want their playoff run to continue. Having that well-oiled machine running rapidly in transition helps him and everyone else post nights like he had.

“Getting to the basket, and free throws,” Long said. “The big thing is knocking those down really help. My teammates were finding me to get the ball in the basket.”

“Sometimes, whenever we were coming off pick and rolls and things like that, we found the open man,” Pappas said. “We’ve got to continue to get better at that. We got to continue to move the basketball, we need to screen bodies and we just got to clean up a lot.”

Cleaning up Mexico’s foul situation will also help as the Bulldogs tallied north of 10 fouls in each half, including with about five minutes left in the fourth quarter. After Mexico defeated the Spartans 85-47 in Moberly two weeks ago, Monday’s district game showcased much more contact between the conference rivals.
Even though a team sustains much physical contact in those types of games, Pappas said it goes beyond the physical aspect.

“We need to be able to handle that,” Pappas said. “We got to be tougher and stronger — mentally and physically. We got to make sure we block out and actually go get the ball off the rim. Those are going to be key if we want to continue to move forward.”

Shelton was at the forefront of Mexico’s defensive effort as he was able to turn three of his steals into dunks on the other end. Those rim-rattling moments happened in those fruitful stretches of time in the second and fourth quarters.

After noticing the amount of fouls being called, Shelton said playing “hands off” and “less contact” basketball was important. The Bulldogs were rewarded when they were able to accomplish this, and Shelton specifically was able to touch the rim a few times on his dunks.

“It took time for me to develop that,” Shelton said. “Since my sophomore year, I’ve been consistently dunking. It really came off from the steals when we played defense.”

Mexico had a better outing the second time against No. 2 seed Kirksville at the Tigers’ gym 62-57 after losing an 83-71 game in Mexico earlier in the season. Pappas said the difference between those games was Isaac Danielson, Keaton Anderson and Cole Kelly all became loose from the Bulldogs’ defense so that can’t happen today.

“Those are the big three,” Pappas said. “It’s going to come down to defensive effort. If we can clean up some things on the defensive end, I like our chances.”
“If we play as a team and stop their main scorers, we should be alright,” Long said.