Tigers fight to stay alive at tourney

For a half, the Mountain Home Tigers played one of their best halves of basketball this season in their District III 4A Tournament opener at Caldwell against Kuna.

It was not necessarily because it was one of their better shooting nights, but in the first half they attacked the basket well, and all players seemed to be on the same wave length.

Then came the second half, in which things changed dramatically, and that group of Tigers seemed to disappear, like a segment of "Without a Trace."

The result was a Kuna win, and a Tiger collapse that left Mountain Home battling for their life last night in a loser-out game.

The game started well enough, with the Tigers shooting out to an 18-10 first quarter lead. Mountain Home increased their lead to 13 points, 25-12, on a steal and layup by Arturo Garcia with 6:25 left in the half.

The points put Garcia at 17 for the half. They would be his last of the half, and his last field goal of the game, as he managed just three free throws in the third quarter the rest of the night.

A three-point goal by Nick Harris just before halftime cut the Tigers' margin to 32-26 at the half.

The Kavemen came out with a flurry to start the second half, and a 7-0 run gave Kuna a 33-32 lead just 90 seconds into the third period.

Arturo Garcia hit a free throw to tie the game at 33-33 with 6:15 left in the quarter, but David Andrus got a basket and free throw to make it 36-33, Kuna just seconds later.

Nick Harris scored to make it 38-33, but the Tigers staged a mini-rally, getting a basket by Stephen Reinschmidt and two free throws from Arturo Garcia to cut it to 38-37, with 5:01 left in the quarter.

That is when the world seemed to cave in for Mountain Home. They missed seven straight shots the rest of the quarter while turning the ball over seven times, and trailed 46-37 heading into the final period.

The fourth quarter offered little hope for Mountain Home, who got a basket by Travis Elliott to open the quarter, and a trey by Stephen Reinschmidt to bring them back within nine, at 51-42, with 5:45 left.

From there, the Tigers would go 0 for five in shots, and Kuna was content to whittle the time away after that, coming away with a 54-42 win.

"We tried to slow them down the first half and execute some things, and I thought it worked well," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "I guess we just can't do it two halves in a row, though we had basically the same game plan, but coming out second half, it just didn't click.

"I really don't know what the differences were. I think we were a little flat. I don't think we had a whole lot of spunk in our step, and I think we tried jogging through stuff. I don't know if we thought it was going to be too easy in the second half or what. Obviously, we couldn't get anything going."

Arturo Garcia led the Tigers in scoring with 20 points, but had just three free throws in the second half. He did have a double-double, bringing down 12 rebounds for the Tigers, who out rebounded Kuna 34-27.

Stephen Reinschmidt added 11 points, Matt Maurer scored four, Keith Yagues netted a trey, and Brock Zamora and Travis Elliott both scored two points.

Mountain Home hit on just three of 17 (18 percent) on treys, the Kavemen hit six of 18 (33 percent).

The Tigers shot just 35 percent (12/34) inside the circle, to Kuna's 42 percent (13/31). Mountain Home shot 82 percent (9/11) from the free throw line, Kuna hit 15 of 20 for 75 percent.

The Tigers battled Caldwell in a loser out game last night. After opening the tourney with a win over Emmett, the Cougars lost to Bishop Kelly in the semifinals last Saturday night. Emmett faced Kuna in last night's other loser-out game. Last night's winners play tomorrow night at 7 p.m. for third place.

The District Championship game has Vallivue and Bishop Kelly squaring off at 7 p.m. on Friday night, with both already qualifying for State. The third place winner travels to Grangeville Saturday for an afternoon State Playoff game with the north Idaho runner-up.

The 4A State Tournament is March 4-6 at Albertson College of Idaho in Caldwell.