The guard play shined Thursday night in Mexico.

The Bulldogs, who received votes in the latest Class 4 state poll, hosted No. 5 Father Tolton as Mexico went into halftime with a 27-21 lead but came out of the night with a 68-62 loss. Mexico’s guard tandem of Jordan Shelton and DJ Long led the team in scoring with 22 points and 13 points, respectively, and Zay Wilson and James Lee had 19 and 16 points for Tolton — 28 combined points in the second half.

Head coach Darren Pappas said Mexico (12-6) did what it could late in the game as the Bulldogs tied the game at 56 about halfway through the fourth quarter on back-to-back 3-pointers by Jaydon Eldridge and Shelton. When Wilson and Lee put Tolton (10-5) on top in the waning seconds, the Trailblazers hit their shots while the Bulldogs couldn’t make open looks go down.

“They just hit some shots — some key buckets — and they made their free throws down the stretch,” Pappas said. “We had two good looks, I thought, late in the game, but they just didn’t fall. That’s the game of basketball.”

Through one half, Wilson and Lee combined for seven points but started to be a problem for Mexico’s offense. Lee, who played receiver on the football field, elevated for a catch to steal a pass before taking it to the rim to tie the game at 43 with less than two minutes left in the third quarter.

Pappas said decision-making played a role and is an area Mexico could work on. Still, the Bulldogs’ experienced guards of Shelton and Long did a good job matching the experienced duo of Wilson and Lee as Shelton finished with four 3-pointers and Long came away with four steals.

“They got two seniors, and we’ve got a senior and a junior that have played a lot of basketball in the summertime and throughout the school year,” Pappas said. “They’re used to those types of games so they were just battling. When you have four good guards like that — two on each team — it’s fun to watch, not only as a spectator but as a coach.”

Tolton went on runs to seal the game in the second half but mounted a 7-0 run in the second quarter to cut Mexico’s 19-10 lead to 19-17. Evens Appolon towered over the rest of the floor as he finished with 14 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. He also had three dunks in the game, scoring six of his points in the second quarter to bring the Trailblazers back in the game.

Pappas said Mexico’s interior players like PJ Perkins, Donye Nunnelly and Dante Kelley had a tall task defending Appolon but did as good as possible. The Tolton big man was limited to four points in the second half.

“We tried to do as much as we could to make it hard on him,” Pappas said. “We were letting him catch it, but we were doing different defensive schemes to try to make it tough when he put the ball on the ground or surround him as much as possible to try to make him uncomfortable. Different guys had to double down on him or dig on him whenever he caught it in the post.”

Pappas said the concern after paying so much attention to one post player is preventing him from finding open shooters on the perimeter. Even when Appolon couldn’t, the Trailblazers moved the basketball to hang around.

After not hitting a 3-pointer in the first half, Tolton knocked down four from deep as more players got involved. After Wilson, Lee and Appolon, Tolton had one player with 10 points and another with nine points.

“We were trying to get rotations on them,” Pappas said. “They were putting a lot of pressure on the paint and then finding shooters on the perimeter, getting kickouts. We were a little slow on the help, but I thought, overall, we did a good job defending them.”

Pappas said Mexico is playing at a good level right now in January as the Bulldogs kept making plays down the stretch to give them a chance. When Mexico lost the lead and needed to be within striking distance in the closing minutes, senior Anthony Shivers picked up two offensive rebounds — one that resulted in scoring through a foul and another where he capped the second-chance opportunity with a 3-pointer. Those buckets made it 65-62 Tolton with 53 seconds remaining.

Shivers showed no fear “going against the trees” that Tolton has and even laid out unsuccessfully to save a potential steal to give Mexico another opportunity.

“He left it all out there,” Pappas said. “He’s going to give us everything he’s got and every ounce that he has. He may be outsized, but he’s got an extremely big heart. He thought he picked up a foul and said, ‘Leave me in there.’ I’m like, ‘I’m leaving you in there’ because we need his defensive presence.”

Mexico plays at district foe Macon (14-3) at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Bulldogs rally together for 66-40 win vs Boonville

Emotions ran high Monday night on Gary Filbert Court.

Mexico defeated Boonville at home 66-40, outscoring the Pirates 39-19 in the second half, but not before there was some contact and words exchanged between the two teams. 

When Mexico (12-5) was down 15-11 early in the second quarter, DJ Long collided with Boonville’s Colby Caton — the Pirates’ quarterback during Mexico’s 27-13 district loss last year — and that resulted in a mass of Bulldogs and Pirates that needed some separation. Long shot a couple free throws prior to Mexico closing the first half on a 16-6 run to take a 27-21 halftime lead.

“It was two teams competing. Absolutely competing and trying to give it their all,” head coach Darren Pappas said. “Both teams are scrappy, and there were some plays that could have went either way. I felt like our guys were feeding off the energy of the crowd, which is a good thing. Give credit to our guys. We made some shots down the stretch and were able to capitalize from the free throw line tonight — 79 percent.”

DJ Long kept heating up as the game wore on, finishing with 22 points after having two points in the first quarter. Jordan Shelton followed with 15 points, three steals and two rim-rattling dunks that charged up the home crowd even more. 

Long and Shelton showed great chemistry after the scuffle, lobbing alley-oop passes to each other. Long finished his softly with a layup, and Shelton hung briefly on the rim after catching a pinpoint pass in the fastbreak from Long.

“That was not designed or a play call from the bench,” Pappas said while smiling. “They know each other and know each other’s capabilities.”

Pappas said a big story, literally and figuratively, in the game as the interior play of Donye Nunnelly, PJ Perkins and Dante Kelley. The trio combined for 29 rebounds, with Perkins finishing with a double-double of 12 points — eight points in the fourth quarter — and 11 rebounds along with three blocks. Nunnelly grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds, recording eight in the first half.

Defending the interior makes the Bulldogs’ game of scoring in transition easier as was the case against Boonville (7-10). The two-point deficit for Mexico turned into an eight-point lead at 25-17 with a little more than a minute left until halftime. 

“I just give credit to those guys for stepping up and protecting the rim as much as possible,” Pappas said. “I thought (Perkins) did a good job of finishing around the rim in the fourth quarter. I also think our guards found him at times. They left him wide open, and he got some easy buckets around the rim.”

Mexico had been in its offensive groove for a while at that point, despite allowing two Boonville 3-pointers in the third quarter. It was a Cooper Pfeiffer 3-pointer that moved the Pirates in front to end the first quarter, but Jaydon Eldridge and Anthony Shivers each hit a shot from deep to help cancel out Boonville’s perimeter shooting.

Pappas said the best way Mexico canceled out Boonville’s perimeter offense was on the defensive end as Boonville finished with four 3-pointers. Jackson Johns was the lone Pirate in double figures with 12 points to go along with 11 rebounds.

“We really tried to run them off the 3-point line as much as possible because they’re good 3-point shooters,” Pappas said. “We just tried to mix it up as much as possible between man and zone. Coach Nunnelly did a good job of that, trying to keep them off-balance as much as possible.”