Borah's defense buries Tigers

The Mountain Home Tigers hung tough with the Borah Lions early Friday night, but when the Lions roared, they nearly shook the foundation of Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, going on a 43-0 run before the Tigers finally scored after going nearly 14 minutes without scoring. The result was a 73-30 Borah win.

The Lions are the defending 5A State Champions, but had their problems getting their shots to drop in the first quarter, missing 13 shots in a row as Mountain Home built up a 10-4 lead half-way through the first quarter.

Borah finally got their shots to drop, and took an 11-10 lead during a 12-0 run that put them up 16-10 before Brock Zamora's basket about a minute into the second period.

Borah stretched their lead to 23-13, before the Tigers cut the deficit in half, 25-20, with 1:25 left in the half. A 7-0 run by the Lions put them up 32-20 at halftime.

The third quarter has been Mountain Home's down quarter, point-wise, heading into the game, with just 12 points in their first two games, but Friday night's effort went from bad to worse. Mountain Home missed their two trey attempts, their six tries at twos in the quarter, as well as three free throws, but the Tigers also turned the ball over eight times in the quarter to help Borah stretch their lead to 60-20 heading into the final quarter.

Mountain Home would finally score at the 3:28 mark, when Steven Oswald sank two free throws to make it 68-22, and break a 43-0 run that stretched over three quarters and 14 minutes. Their first field goal of the second half came with 1:10 left, as Brian Fields canned a trey to make it 72-27.

"We got off to a good start, we just couldn't keep up the pace as they got a little bit physical with us," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot. "I thought they out physicaled us inside and got away with some things, but Borah's fundamentally a very sound team. They're a physical ball club and they can shoot the ball. A lot of people think they'll be back in the State (5A) Championship game.

"In the second half, we as coaches were wondering how we were going to ever score. They play good team defense. They had great help. Any time we had someone going to the basket, somebody else stepped in and took the ball away from us and stripped us. I give Borah all the credit in the world on that. They are an outstanding defensive ball club, and I think that's a lot of what they've been focusing on."

Brock Zamora led the Tigers with 10 points, and brought down nine rebounds. all his points coming in the first half. Brian Fields added eight points, Steven Oswald, Travis Eikeness and Jonathan Hutchins all had season-highs with three points, Matt Maurer scored two points, and Trevor Lawson, one.

Mountain Home made five of 21 (24 percent) three-point attempts, five of 25 (20 percent) two- pointers, and just five of 13 (38 percent) free throws.

Borah hit on 32 percent (6/19) from three-point land, 43 percent (21/49) inside the arc, and cashed in on 68 percent (13/19) from the charity stripe.

The Lions out rebounded the Tigers, 42-31.

Mountain Home is on the road for their next three games. They played at Capital last (Tuesday) night, Centennial tomorrow (Thursday) night, and close out their non-conference schedule at Jerome on December 21.

"We're going to have to bounce back," said Coach Kerfoot. "We have our work cut out for us, but hopefully, we'll take it from here and go forward."