Tigers open season with victory over Jerome

The Mountain Home Tigers came away with a split of their first two games of the boys basketball season, beating Jerome, but losing to Boise.

Mountain Home 50

Jerome 42

The Mountain Home Tigers withstood a frigid second half of shooting to down the Jerome Tigers, 50-42, in their season opening boys basketball game in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home Thursday night.

The first quarter saw four ties and six lead changes before Mountain Home broke out on top and led 16-12 after a quarter.

It was part of a 10-0 run by Mountain Home that extended their lead to 22-12. They led 30-19 at the half.

Then came the third quarter, that saw Mountain Home go cold from the field, as they missed their first five shots, not scoring until four minutes remained, and made just two of 12 in the quarter -- one of six treys, and one of six twos -- as Jerome cut the lead to 35-32 heading into the final period.

The fourth quarter saw the home Tigers go 4:40 before they scored, as Jerome took the lead, 37-35. Mountain Home's first basket of the quarter, a trey by Brian Fields, pushed the local Tigers ahead 38-37, the start of an 11-0 run by Mountain Home that put them back in control, 46-37, with 58 seconds left.

Jerome managed to cut the margin down to five, 47-42, with 32 seconds left, but a free throw by Keith Yagues and a basket by Brock Zamora made it a 50-42 Mountain Home final.

"It's always nice to get a win, especially your opener, a home opener at that," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot, after the game.

"I thought we played real well the first half, especially defensively, but I don't think we played real nice the second half, and I feel fortunate to get a victory.

"I thought that, defensively, the kids hustled and scrapped hard, and you know, if you keep a team under 50 points, you have a good chance to win it, even if you're not playing your best."

Brock Zamora, Keith Yagues and Brian Fields each scored in double figures for Mountain Home, led by Zamora with 12, Yagues, 11 and Fields, 10. Trevor Lawson netted six points, Matt Maurer, four, Jarrod Roberson, three, Travis Eikeness and Michael Hinton, two each.

Jerome won the rebound battle, 35-34. Brock Zamora brought down nine rebounds for Mountain Home, Matt Maurer had eight.

Mountain Home turned the ball over 22 times, and forced Jerome into 37 turnovers for the ball game.

Mountain Home connected on four of 20 (20 percent) three-point shots, and shot 30 percent (13/44) inside the arc. They were 12 of 26 (46 percent) from the free-throw line.

Jerome connected on just three of 16 (19 percent) treys, but shot 50 percent (13/26) inside the circle, and made seven of 13 (54 percent) from the charity stripe.

Boise 54

Mountain Home 48

In a game that had 15 lead changes and six ties, the Boise Braves pulled away from a 47-47 tie to edge the Tigers Saturday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The first quarter saw eight lead changes, and Mountain Home go on a 5-0 run at the end of the quarter to take a 15-11 lead into the second quarter.

A nine-point effort by Jack Gordon in the second period helped the Braves battle back to take a 24-23 lead at halftime.

Mountain Home's last lead of the ball game came with 4:30 left in the third quarter, when Brock Zamora canned a trey to put the Tigers up, 30-28. They would not score again the rest of the quarter, and the Braves went on a 12-0 run to lead, 40-30, heading into the fourth.

Brock Zamora scored 11 points in the fourth quarter, including three treys, to help lead the Tigers back, and Jarrod Roberson's steal and lay-up tied the game at 47-47, with 2:25 left in the game.

Mountain Home forced a turnover by Boise, but then missed their shot on their attempt to take the lead. Boise then went up, 49-47, with 1:10 left on a basket by Patrick Walker.

Mountain Home missed a three-point attempt, but got the ball back when Boise turned the ball over. The Tigers missed another shot, and Boise stretched their lead to 51-47, with 25 seconds left, when Colby Blaine sank two free throws.

After a Mountain Home turnover, Robbie Becker hit two free throws to make it 53-47, Boise, with 17 seconds left. The two teams traded free throws for a 54-48 final.

"I thought both teams played hard," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "I thought our kids played hard, we just have to work on executing some finer situations, but we made it a good, tough ball game.

"We had a game plan going in to make them come out and guard us, and in the first half, we got in a run there where we had a good lead, and then we didn't make them play defense, and that really catered to their fast breaks. We came down and took some shots that we probably shouldn't have taken for this game, and it led to to fast break lay-ups for them."

Kerfoot did like the way his Tigers kept battling back.

"We dug ourselves holes, but we came back, and in the end, we were there, we just didn't execute at the end."

Brock Zamora led the Tigers with a season-high 17 points. Jarrod Roberson was next with nine points. Keith Yagues added eight, Brian Fields netted seven, Matt Maurer scored three, and Steven Oswald and Trevor Lawson each had two.

Mountain Home shot 30 percent (7/23) from three-point range, and 34 percent (11/32) inside the arc. The Tigers shot a dismal 36 percent (5/14) from the free throw line.

Boise hit only one of 13 (8 percent) trey attempts, but hit 17 of 38 (45 percent) inside the arc, and cashed in on 63 percent (17/27) from the charity stripe.

The taller Braves out rebounded Mountain Home, 42-27, with Brock Zamora leading the Tigers, bringing down eight boards.

Next up for the 1-1 Tigers are the Borah Loins, Friday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Kerfoot expects a tough ball game from the Lions, last year's 5A State Champions.

"Borah has some big guys -- 6' 7" and 6' 4" -- that are good players, and they'vd also got some good guards. They're the defending 5A state champs, picked to finish up there near the top again, but we'll come out and play hard and see what happens."