Tigers drop SIC openers

The Mountain Home Tigers dropped their first two SIC 4A conference games of the season last week, losing to Caldwell on the road, and Vallivue at home.

Caldwell 53

Mountain Home 50

The Tigers battled back from an 11-point halftime deficit last Thursday night at Caldwell, but were never able to take the lead.

Caldwell shot out to an 8-0 lead before the Tigers battled back to within three, at 12-9, with 1:45 left in the first quarter. Caldwell led 14-9 after a quarter.

The Cougars stretched their lead up to 13 points in the second quarter, and led 32-21 at halftime.

Mountain Home came out strong in the third quarter, and got to within four, at 36-32, on a trey by Keith Yagues with over three minutes left in the period, but trailed 44-38 heading into the fourth quarter.

A basket by Travis Elliott and a trey by Jarrod Roberson to start the fourth, got the Tigers within one, at 44-43, less than a minute into the final quarter.

The Cougars maintained the lead, which slipped back and fourth from two to four points all quarter, until Michael DeMark hit two free throws with 11.2 seconds left to put Caldwell up, 53-47.

Travis Elliott canned a trey to cut it to 53-50 with four seconds left, and the Cougars let the clock run down for the win.

"I thought we did a much better job in the second half of keeping the ball under control, working for a good shot," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game.

"We didn't do that in the first half, and I think that cost us a lot. We got back in it and got close at the end, but it didn't quite end up like we wanted it to, but that's the way it goes sometimes."

Stephen Reinschmidt and Arturo Garcia both hit double figures in scoring, with 15 and 14 points respectively. Travis Elliott added seven points, Brock Zamora scored six, Keith Yagues and Jarrod Roberson both netted three, and Danny Downen had two points to round out the scoring.

The Tigers connected on five of 12 (42 percent) from three-point land, Caldwell hit five of 10 (50 percent).

Mountain Home hit 14 of 27 (52 percent) inside the arc, the Cougars 12 of 25 (48 percent). The Tigers hit just 50 percent (7/14) from the charity stripe, Caldwell was 14 of 20 for 70 percent.

Vallivue 61

Mountain Home 35

Josh Owen and the Caldwell Cougars warmed up from long range in the second half, as the Falcons blew open a close game for a lopsided win Saturday night in Mountain Home.

Vallivue shot out to a 7-0 lead, and led 12-4 after a quarter. The Tigers managed to get to within six, at 18-12 on a basket by Stephen Reinschmidt with 3:25 left in the half. It was 24-14, Vallivue, at halftime.

Josh Owen, who hit just one trey in the first half, canned six in a row in the second half, as the Falcons pulled away, outscoring Mountain Home 37-21 in the second half.

"I knew they had good shooters," said Coach Kerfoot after the game, "but basically, what happened I thought, from our perspective, was we got a little bit tired and didn't get to their shooters. Maybe we didn't think they would hit them after they missed some, and they did miss quite a few in the first half, but in the second half, they found their range, and the Owen kid, he's had a couple games scoring over 30 points this year. I don't know how many he got tonight, but he got hot and we should have been on him.

"That was basically it right there, we just didn't get to him, and we're going to have to do that.

"I thought what took us out of the game as much as their shooting was offensively, we didn't score. They did some job of bottling up Arturo (Garcia). He had two hands on him whenever he moved, and whatever he did, they were all over him, and that's going to happen. I can't think of a team we're going to see from here on out that's not going to do that to him, being our leading scorer, so we're going to need someone to step up and help out."

The Falcons held Garcia to nine points, eight points below his average, and his first game of the season of not scoring in double figures. Matt Maurer did step up big for the Tigers, scoring a season-high nine points, and bringing down six rebounds.

"I thought Matt played extremely well, offensively, as well as defensively," said Coach Kerfoot of Maurer's effort. "I thought he had an extremely good game at Caldwell, but most of it was defensive -- I don't think he scored a point that game -- but I still thought he had a great game, because he played defense,he hustled and got on the boards and didn't do things to take us out of our offense, but did some good things for the team."

Stephen Reinschmidt added eight points, and brought down nine boards. Clark Williams scored four points, Travis Elliott, three, and Brock Zamora, two.

Mountain Home hit just one of 15 (7 percent) three-point attempts, while the Falcons, behind Owen's 7 of 12, were 10 of 25 (40 percent). The Tigers hit 14 of 36 (39 percent) inside the arc, Vallivue netted 13 of 24 (54 percent).

Neither team shot well from the free-throw line, as Mountain Home was just four of 11 (36 percent), and Vallivue netted just five of 14 (36 percent).

Mountain Home hosted Jerome last night, hoping for another win over the Jerome Tigers, a team they beat 66-58 last month at Jerome. The Tigers return to conference action Saturday night at Bishop Kelly.