Girls fall to Hannibal to end regular season
It was the end of the basketball regular season Tuesday night at the Mexico High School Sports-Plex. For most Bulldog fans it was a joyous evening. Mexico won three of four basketball contests on the evening, but it was the one that got away that the senior girls’ will lament.
Mexico’s girls team lost on Senior Night 58-46 to the Lady Pirates. The first quarter was their demise. Locked in a tight 8-6 game, Hannibal scored the next 13 points to take a commanding 21-6 lead after the first quarter. The Lady Dogs threatened twice in the second half by cutting the lead to 8, but could get no closer. MHS fell to 9-17 with the loss while Hannibal improved to 18-7 with another game scheduled for tomorrow night at Columbia Battle.
After a slow start, Claire Hudson led the Dogs with 18 points, and senior Alexis Willer added 10. In addition to Willer, the home crowd said goodbye to injured senior Kiersten Epperson, Messiah Simpson and Capri’ona Fountain.
Kyleah French paced the Lady Pirates with 14 and Siena Minor added 11.
The JV girls won 27-12.
In boys action, Mexico got off to a slow start, falling behind the Pirates 7-0. A reverse layup from senior Jordan Shelton got the Dogs on the board, but the offense was still stagnant until PJ Perkins entered the game. He immediately scored a layup and then DJ Long added and and-one on a layup before Shelton’s triple gave MHS their first lead at 12-11 to end the first quarter.
In the second, senior Anthony Shivers hit a two and a deep three from the left elbow, to help extend the lead to 19-13, before Long took over. He scored 8 of the teams last 10 points of the quarter, including his 1000th career point. It came on a layup with :29 left and helped Mexico to a 29-23 halftime cushion.
The Bulldogs continued to grow their lead in the third quarter as Shivers hit another triple and Jaydon Eldridge knocked down shots from just inside and just outside the arc. Mexico led 43-31 after three and then scored the first six points of the fourth quarter to put the game away. MHS won 62-42 to improve to 17-9. Hannibal fell to 8-16.
Mexico was led by Long with 18, Shelton added 13 and Shivers threw in 10. In addition to Shivers and Shelton, the Dawgs said goodbye to forward Dante Kelly.
Dae’Shon Glasgow led the Pirates with 13, while CJ Anderson came off the bench to score 11.
The Bulldog boys JV team improved to 17-1 with a 53-21 victory over Hannibal.