Tigers score revenge win over Caldwell

The Mountain Home Tigers' win streak reached two before it ended at Vallivue last Friday night.

Mountain Home 64

Caldwell 61

Mountain Home had dropped their conference opener at Caldwell earlier in the month, 53-50, and had been waiting to meet the Cougars in Thursday's game in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The game had lots of excitement for the fans, featuring 14 lead changes and five ties.

Caldwell led 19-17 after a quarter, and battled back from a 37-33 in the closing minute to tie the game at 37-37 at halftime.

Mountain Home built up an early six-point lead in the third period, but the Cougars battled back to take a 53-52 lead into the final quarter.

A trey by Brock Zamora to open the fourth gave the Tigers the lead back, at 55-53, and the Tigers did not relinquish the lead the rest of the night, building up a five-point lead, and hanging on for a 64-61 win.

Tiger basketball Coach Tony Kerfoot was happy to come away with the win.

"There were moments when we played awfully good basketball, and there were moments when we made some big mistakes," Kerfoot said with a chuckle after the game. "I guess the big thing is, hey, it's always nice to get a win, and it's even better when it's one of the top teams. Caldwell is sitting third in league, and I know they're a very good ball club, and in a close game down the stretch, we're going to have to execute better than we did tonight in the long run, but we were still able to come out with a win."

Three Tigers scored in double figures against the Cougars, led by Arturo Garcia with 21. Brock Zamora and Stephen Reinschmidt both added 11. Travis Elliott netted seven, Clark Williams, four, Matt Maurer, three, Keith Yagues, Jarrod Roberson and Mark Fischer each had two, and Danny Downen, one.

Mountain Home made only 25 percent (3/12) of their three-point attempts, but 54 percent (20/37) inside the circle, and cashed in on 15 of 21 (71 percent) at the foul line.

Caldwell, behind Mario Betancourt's six of 13 effort, shot 33 percent (7/21) from three-point range, and 46 percent (17/37) inside the arc, and hit only 50 percent (6/12) from the free throw line.

Vallivue 73

Mountain Home 38

The Tigers had upset on their mind when they traveled over to Vallivue last Friday night, and for well over a quarter and a half, were still very much into the game. Vallivue managed an 11-6 lead after a quarter, and a 12-3 run the latter half of the second period put the Falcons up 34-18 at halftime.

Mountain Home scored their first basket of the third quarter with 4:08 left in the quarter, as Keith Yagues' basket made it 42-20 Vallivue. The Tigers would score only three more points in the quarter, as Vallivue built their lead to 54-23 heading into the fourth.

The Falcons biggest lead of the night was 73-31, with under two minutes left in the game. Mountain Home closed out the scoring on a 7-0 run to make it 73-38.

"Vallivue's tough, especially in their own gym," said Coach Kerfoot after the game, "and they did some things fundamentally a lot better than we did. They fouled a lot better than we did, because they didn't get called in the first half. I thought our first eight shots we got pretty physical, and I think that threw us off and it threw us into a spin the rest of the night, and mentally, we're going to have to get tougher than that. We've had some good offensive nights, but tonight wasn't one of them."

Arturo Garcia led the Tigers in scoring with 10 points. Travis Elliott hit for eight points, Clark Williams, Jarrod Roberson and Stephen Reinschmidt each scored four, Brock Zamora netted three, Keith Yagues and Danny Downen, two, and Matt Maurer, one.

The Tigers had a miserable night shooting, hitting just 17 percent (3/18) on treys, 26 percent (10/39) on twos, and 50 percent (9/18) at the foul line.

Vallivue hit five of 16 treys (31percent), and shot 49 percent (19/39) inside the circle, and shot 71 percent (20/28) from the free throw line.

The Tigers are now 2-4 in league play, and 5-10 overall. They host Bishop Kelly Friday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, and travel to Kuna on Saturday night.

Kerfoot sees room for improvement as they get ready for this weekend's opponents.

"I think this game tonight (at Vallivue) shows we're going to have to get a little bit better. We've made improvements, but we've got more to go, and we're going to have to get a little bit more physical as we come down the stretch, here, and I think that showed there tonight, because the physical part bothered us a little bit."