Tigers earn win over Jerome

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

After opening the basketball season with a win over Wood River, the Mountain Home Tigers lost five straight games before returning to the win column last Thursday night at Jerome.

Nampa 60

Mountain Home 39

Mountain Home found themselves down early last Tuesday night at Nampa, and were never able to put anything together after the first quarter to mount any type of a comeback.

Nampa shout out to a 10-2 lead in the first three and a half minutes. The Tigers clawed their way back to within two, at 10-8, on a basket by Arturo Garcia with 2:10 left in the period, but Nampa scored the final five points of the quarter to lead 15-8.

The Bulldogs hit the first six points of the second quarter, and Mountain Home was playing catch-up the rest of the night. Nampa led 30-20 at halftime.

The Tigers managed to cut the Nampa lead to seven, at 32-25, on a trey by Arturo Garcia, with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter, but a 14-0 run by Nampa made it 46-25, Bulldogs. It was, 46-29, Nampa, heading into the final quarter, and the Tigers were unable to get anything going in the fourth either.

"Our effort definitely wasn't there tonight," said assistant coach Brent Keener after the game. "Our intensity, from the get-go was absent. I don't know where it was. I think that first big blowout two games ago, it seemed to set them back for some reason, and they're not able to overcome it yet."

Arturo Garcia was the lone Tiger to reach double figures in scoring. The 6' 1" senior had 14 points.

Brock Zamora netted nine points, Danny Downen and Stephen Reinschmidt both scored four, Clark Williams, Keith Yagues, Travis Elliott and Matt Maurer each scored two points.

Neither team shot well from three-point land.

Mountain Home hit two of 13 (15 percent) and the Bulldogs connected on just two of 19 (11 percent).

For the third game in a row, the big difference in scoring was the inside game, where Mountain Home hit on just 12 of 31 shots, for 39 percent, while the Bulldogs connected on 22 of 37 for 59 percent. The Tigers were nine of 12 (75 percent) from the free throw line, while Nampa hit 10 of 16 (63 percent).

Mountain Home 66

Jerome 58

Last Thursday night's game at Jerome resembled last year's trip to Jerome, in reverse. Last year at Jerome, Mountain Home was getting blown out first half, trailed by as many as 15 points in the first half before coming back second half to take a lead, but then falling by two in overtime.

Last Thursday night at Jerome, it was Mountain Home that came out fired up, and shot out to a 14-0 lead before Jerome finally got on the scoreboard with 2:12 left in the first quarter. It was 23-7 Mountain Home after a quarter, and 33-22 in favor of Mountain Home at the half.

Jerome took the ball inside to their big 6' 6" senior, as they fought back. A trey by Conrad Lee with 40 seconds left in the third, gave Jerome their first, and only lead, 40-39.

Stephen Reinschmidt scored with 12 seconds left to give Mountain Home a 41-40 lead heading into the final quarter.

Mountain Home built up a 50-40 lead midway through the fourth quarter, and it proved to be enough, as the closest Jerome ever got after that was four, at 56-52, on a Chance Craig trey with a little over two minutes left. An 8-0 run put Mountain Home up 64-52, with 30 seconds left, and they withstood two more treys by Craig to win it, 66-58.

Tiger head coach Tony Kerfoot was pleased to see his team bounce back into the win column.

"I thought we played extremely well defensively in the first half. Offensively, we looked comfortable out there. but Jerome fought back and they got back in it. We were able to come right back and take control of the game down the stretch, so I was happy with that, and we got experience (picking up a win) in a close game."

Arturo Garcia matched his season, and career high, with 26 points, hitting three of four treys, seven of 10 two-point field goals, and was three of four from the free throw line. Brock Zamora and Stephen Reinschmidt both netted 13 points. Travis Elliott added nine, Keith Yagues and Matt Maurer both scored two points, and Clark Williams had one.

Mountain Home hit four of nine treys, for 44 percent, and a sizzling 20 of 36 (56 percent) inside the arc, and hit 14 of 23 (61 percent) from the charity stripe.

The Jerome Tigers connected on seven of 17 (41 percent) long balls, and shot 43 percent (15 of 35) inside the line, and made seven of 12 (58 percent) from the foul line.

The Tigers, now 2-5 on the season, return to action Jan. 2 at Capital, and travel to Wood River on Jan. 3. The Capital game was rescheduled from Dec. 30.

Coach Kerfoot is looking forward to the time off to rest up and work on some things.

"We'll have some time to adjust and work out some kinks and put in whatever new wrinkles we need to."

The game at Wood River on Jan. 3 will be part of a "Super Saturday," with both the girls and boys teams facing Wood River.

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