Fans for the Mexico girls in Monday’s district game didn’t know what would happen in the final seconds.

Mexico vs Wright City Districts Photo Gallery

The Lady Bulldogs had been playing Wright City back-and-forth all night in the first round of the Class 4 District 8 tournament in Fulton and had to deal with a tie game at 60 following a game-tying 3-pointer by Paige Rees. Mexico secured a 64-61 victory and its fourth meeting with arch rival Fulton on Wednesday after picking up three offensive rebounds and some turnovers to avoid the sixth-third seed upset.

“That’s something we talked about a lot before the game: getting more offensive rebounds,” head coach Makenzie Mudd said. “We’ve been decent at defensive rebounds all season, but offense is where we’ve struggled.”

Kylie Burnett put back a miss late in the fourth quarter and then fellow senior Karlee Sefrit threw up an offensive rebound through a foul for a 58-57 Mexico advantage with almost a minute left. Claire Hudson knocked down two free throws with 17 seconds left for a 62-61 lead after grabbing a missed free throw, making Mudd proud of how the Lady Bulldogs adjusted to Wright City’s play.

Maintaining control of the ball became more vital as the game kept trending the way it did into the highest-scoring with the tightest margin for both Mexico (11-15) and Wright City (7-20). The Lady Wildcats made it one-sided in the first quarter at 16-3, thanks to five 3-pointers. Mexico managed to fight all the way back to a 31-26 halftime lead.

“It was definitely one of the most physical we’ve played all season,” Mudd said. “There were lots of things that were pretty marginal foul-wise both ways — we got away with a lot, they got away with a lot. That was something that got us at the beginning.”

The Lady Bulldogs hit back hard in the second quarter with five 3-pointers of their own, including three from freshman Grace Hudson. Among the five Lady Bulldogs with at least seven points, Hudson led with 15 points on five 3-pointers and picked up five rebounds as well.

Mudd said she wasn’t sure if she would have Hudson in time for districts since she was sick over the weekend and is still in recovery. She said Hudson didn’t let misses deter her from shooting and keeping Mexico from falling too far behind early.

“Her mental game was awesome tonight,” Mudd said. “She airballed and was really down on herself, but then she came back out, shot another one and it went in, and then we were good to go.”

Hudson said she simply “really wanted to win” when it came to her hot streak from beyond the arc. The rest of the floor seemed to share the same sentiment as the teams combined for 18 3-pointers in the game. Wright City accounted for 10 of those and three Lady Wildcats each had at least three 3-pointers, forcing Mexico to pay closer attention.

“I knew that they could shoot, but I didn’t think they were going to get that hot,” Mudd said. “We talked more about fighting through screens as we weren’t as aggressive in the first half pushing through and trying to fight through to stay with our man.”

Mudd said the lack of foul calls on contact inside helped both teams and convinced Mexico it should “pack the paint and kick it out.” The Lady Bulldogs were eventually able to spread the ball around effectively, with Claire Hudson following her younger sister with 14 points, seven rebounds and five steals; Jo Thurman adding nine points, eight rebounds and five assists; Kenzie Taylor contributing eight points and five rebounds off the bench; Burnett finishing with seven points; and Sefrit having six points and seven rebounds.

Grace Hudson noticed the offense was smoother as the game wore on and believes the Lady Bulldogs need to be more in sync against its North Central Missouri Conference foe Fulton at 7:30 p.m. today in the semifinals.

“We weren’t really running plays at first,” Hudson said. “We just worked together, spread the ball and found the open shots. It’s just working together as a team and not making one person do it all.”

Mexico defeated Fulton (11-14) early in the season at the Montgomery County tournament, but in conference action, the Lady Bulldogs have dropped 36-33 and 43-41 games to their arch rival.

“The last few games were really close so we’d really love to beat them on their home court to play for that championship on Friday,” Mudd said.