Tigers fall to Meridian, Centennial

There were no fourth quarter comebacks for the Mountain Home Tigers last week in non-conference boys basketball losses to Centennial and Meridian, and the result were same-score losses for the Tigers.

Centennial 73

Mountain Home 45

Things certainly started well for Mountain Home last Tuesday night at home against Centennial, as two baskets by Arturo Garcia and one by Keith Yagues put the Tigers up, 6-0, in the first 75 seconds of the game.

Centennial did not score until 2:30 had expired in the first quarter, when Josh Ware scored, but it led to an 15-2 run for the defending 5A state champs, who led, 15-8, after a quarter, and 32-20, at halftime. A 22-9 Centennial edge in scoring in the third quarter put the game out of reach, 54-29.

"That's a good ball club," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "That's a REAL good ball club. They shoot it, they've got good size, they pass the ball well, and if you blink your eyes, they're by you on the drive and have a lay-up, so they do pretty much everything, pretty well."

Arturo Garcia led Mountain Home in scoring with 15 points. Keith Yagues added seven, Brock Zamora, Travis Elliott and Stephen Reinschmidt each had five points, Danny Downen, four, and Mark Fisher and Matt Maurer both had two points.

The Tigers had a dismal night of shooting from the floor, hitting just 15 percent (3 of 20) from three-point land. They managed 14 of 32 shooting (44 percent) inside the arc, and were eight of 12 (67 percent) from the charity stripe.

Centennial hit on three of 12 (25 percent) from long range, but shot 53 percent (28 of 53) inside the circle. They connected on eight of 11 (73 percent) from the foul line.

Centennial won the battle on the boards, 42-21, with Arturo Garcia leading the Tigers with five.

Meridian 73

Mountain Home 45

The Tigers hosted the Meridian Warriors last Thursday night, and the middle two quarters of the game, as well as the middle of the floor proved to be the difference in this game.

Mountain Home shot out to a 5-0 lead, only to have the Warriors come back to tie it at 5-5. The Tigers shot back in the lead, and led 17-13 after a quarter.

Meridian went on an 11-0 run to start the second period, taking a 24-17 lead. The Tigers last basket of the quarter came at the 3:55 mark, when Travis Elliott scored to cut the Meridian lead to 28-22. It was 35-22 Meridian at halftime.

It was another 22-point quarter for Meridian in the third period -- they outscored the Tigers 44-20 in the middle two quarters -- and led, 57-37, heading into the final quarter.

The Warriors scored the first six points of the fourth, to lead, 63-37, and the closest Mountain Home came after that, was after Brock Zamora hit a trey -- his fifth of the game -- with 5:45 left, that made it, 63-40, Meridian.

"They pretty much had their way in the paint," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "We've got to do a much better job playing defense -- we didn't play much tonight, and I don't know that we showed that we know how to play much defense. We didn't stop most everything that they did, and a lot of little fundamental things that we let slip, and I think I saw some of what might be a little fatigue.

"You know, this was -- what -- our fifth game in eight days. I think that's some of it, and we're not as sharp as we were the first weekend, so we've got to get that back."

Brock Zamora, with five treys, set a new season-high with 20 points to lead the Tigers. Arturo Garcia added 10, Stephen Reinschmidt scored six, Travis Elliott, five, Clark Williams, three, and Danny Downen, one.

Mountain Home hit seven of 19 (37 percent) long balls on the night, and shot 38 percent ( 8 of 21) inside the arc. The Tigers hit eight of 15 (53 percent) from the free-throw line.

Meridian hit eight of 19 (42 percent) treys, and were a sizzling 54 percent (21 of 39) inside the circle.

The Warriors hit seven of 10 (70 percent) from the charity stripe.

Matt Maurer led the Tigers with four rebounds, as Meridian picked up 34 rebounds to the Tigers' 20. Mountain Home turned the ball over 21 times, while the Warriors, had 11.

Mountain Home was at Nampa last (Tuesday) night, to face the Nampa Bulldogs, and travel to Jerome tomorrow (Thursday) night to face the Jerome Tigers.

The Tigers are then off until Dec. 30, when they go to Capital High in Boise to face the Capital Eagles.

They open the new year at Wood River on Jan. 3.