Tigers open season against Jerome

The Mountain Home Tigers open their 2004-2005 boys basketball schedule Thursday night at home against the Jerome Tigers.

They are also home Saturday night against the Boise Braves.

Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot likes the looks of this year's Tiger basketball squad.

"We've got the guys that have kind of been in the program and did a little work this summer, and I think we're just kind of sitting around now waiting for the time to come up and it's right around the corner."

Kerfoot lost seven players to graduation last year, but returns four that saw action last year.

Those, coupled with players moving up from the JV has Kerfoot feeling pretty positive about this year's squad.

"Right now, we're doing some things pretty well, and it's going to be interesting once we face some other competition.

"Quickness is a strength, but how quick is it when you go somewhere else and start playing other people's tough people, that's going to be the test, how we do against other teams."

Kerfoot will have had a chance to get a pre-season look, as they were at Vallivue last (Tuesday) night for a jamboree with Caldwell and Vallivue. The Tiger head coach was looking forward to the jamboree.

"We should see some good competition there. Caldwell, they lost their big kids, but they've got everybody else back, and Vallivue, which is always tough, that will give us some good experience before we start up on Thursday with Jerome."

Kerfoot expects a good competitive game from the Jerome Tigers Thursday night.

"They've got everybody back except the big kid, so I look for them to be a little bit stronger than maybe they were last year, because they had a lot of inexperience last year, and they are returning quite a bit of experience. I don't know if they have any real great players.

"The one big kid they lost was 6' 6", and he was a pretty good ball player, and basically, when we were able to slow him down last year, we handled Jerome pretty good, but I expect the rest of the kids to be a little bit better this year."

There will be no sophomore game with Jerome. The JV game will tip off around 6:15 p.m., and the varsity contest is scheduled to begin around 8 p.m.

Saturday night's action against Boise starts with the sophomore game at 4:30 p.m., the J. game at 6:15 p.m., and the varsity game around 8 p.m.