Tigers drop narrow losses to Capital, Centennial

The Mountain Home Tigers bounced back from their bad night against Borah to play some of their best ball of the season against Capital and Centennial last week.

Capital 67

Mountain Home 61

A big concern for Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot going into the Capital game last Tuesday night at Capital was the affect the Borah loss would have on his team.

"My big concern coming in was that we didn't take a step backwards after the Borah game," said Kerfoot in radio comments after the Capital game.

"I definitely don't think we took a step backwards," he said with a smile. "I think this was the best four quarters of basketball we've played this season."

The Tigers seemed to put last week's loss to Borah behind them quickly, shooting out to a 17-10 lead on their way to a 23-17 lead after the first eight minutes.

After Matt Maurer scored to open the second period, stretching Mountain Home's lead to eight, the Eagles went on an 8-0 run to tie the game at 25, with 5:39 left in the half.

Maurer hit two more baskets in the quarter, each one pushing the Tigers back into the lead, but another 8-0 run by Capital put them up, 35-29, with less than two minutes left in the half.

Mountain Home battled back, getting baskets from Brock Zamora and Brian Fields to close the gap to two, 35-33, at halftime.

Then came the third quarter, a quarter that the Tigers went scoreless against Borah, and only had scored 12 points all season. Some three minutes into the period, Mountain Home was still looking for their first points, and the Capital lead was 43-33.

"It (the third quarter scoring lull) was a focal point," said Coach Kerfoot after the game.

"I didn't say a lot about it to the kids, but it really was. In my mind we had to get over the third quarter blues, so we tried a couple different things, and we had a dry spell there for a while, but it was much better tonight. We picked it up a little bit."

Matt Maurer scored to break the spell, and back came the Tigers, cutting the deficit to 45-40, with 3:48 left in the period. Capital led, 49-42, heading into the fourth quarter.

Capital stretched its lead to 12 points in the fourth quarter, and the Tigers battled to keep it single digits.

After JD Repp canned a trey to push the lead back to 12, at 65-53, with 1:48 left, Brock Zamora hit back-to-back buckets to bring the Tigers to within eight, 65-57, with 1:07 remaining.

Connell Hess hit one of two free throws to make it 66-57 with 30 seconds left.

Jarrod Roberson hit a trey to cut the lead to 66-60, with 16 seconds left, then stole the ball and was fouled on the inbounds, hitting one of two free throws to cut the deficit to 66-61, with 14 seconds left.

That would be the closest the Tigers could get, as Dane Pence sank one of two free throws, and Capital escaped with a 67-61 win.

"That was our best effort, and I'm pleased with it," said Kerfoot. "Yeah, I would have liked to come away with a win, but Capital's a fine ball club. The only team they lost to was Highland, and that was in overtime. They're a good ball club, and I think we put a little fear into them tonight."

Three Tigers hit for double figures, setting new season highs in doing so. Brock Zamora led the way with 21 points, Jarrod Roberson added 13, and Matt Maurer netted 12. Brian Fields ended the night with seven points, Steven Oswald had a season-high five, Trevor Lawson, two, and Travis Eikeness, one.

Mountain Home had a good night shooting from the floor, connecting on seven of 16 (44 percent) treys, and were 17 for 35 (49 percent) inside the arc.

Their free-throw woes continued, however, as they hit just 40 percent (6/15) from the charity stripe.

Capital connected on five of 17 (29 percent) long ball, and were 21 of 43 (49 percent) inside. They cashed in on 10 of 19 (53 percent) from the foul line.

The taller Eagles dominated the boards, 36-20. Brock Zamora led the Tigers with five rebounds.

Centennial 71

Mountain Home 68

Another 45 seconds to a minute might have been enough. As it was, the Mountain Home Tigers did not have that extra time, and the Centennial Patriots escaped with a 71-68 win over the Tigers at Centennial last Thursday night.

Mountain Home grabbed a 3-0 lead on a three-pointer by Brock Zamora, but the Patriots then went on a 10-0 run to go up 10-3. Mountain Home battled back to tie it at 12-12, with Centennial ahead 16-12 after a quarter.

The second quarter saw Mountain Home come back to tie it at 16-16, before an 8-0 run put the Patriots up, 24-16. From there, the Tigers managed to get within three, before Centennial stretched it back to eight, 37-29 at halftime.

A 7-0 run by Mountain Home to start the third, pulled them to within one, 37-36. They would get to within two and three points after that, but Centennial led 56-47 heading into the final quarter.

Centennial stretched its lead to double figures in the fourth period, and, when Brock Zamora fouled out with 56:17 left in the game, and the Patriots up 67-51, things looked bleak for the Tigers.

But the never-say-die attitude that has exemplified the Mountain Home Tigers in all but the Borah game so far this year returned.

The Tigers forced seven fourth-quarter turnovers, and, led by 14 fourth quarter points from Jarrod Roberson, battled back and with 1.5 seconds left trailed just 71-68.

Centennial managed to get the ball in bounds and run out the clock, but the Tigers had gained tons of confidence with their comeback effort, which earned a lot of praise from Coach Kerfoot.

"I can't ever remember having such mis-match problems, with their size, and that's fine, if they can't hit outside, but they started hitting outside. As long as they were inside, we had a hard time matching up with them, but what it came down to was how much heart you have, and we played hard and scraped and battled and fought back and if we'd had another minute more, I like our chances.

"I like a team like that. They didn't say die. We were down several times and we still found a way to come back and get back into it."

Jarrod Roberson ended the night with 33 points for the Tigers, including 16 in the final quarter. Brock Zamora added 10 points before fouling out. Keith Yagues, who had missed the last two games with illness, scored seven points. Matt Maurer and Brian Fields both scored five, Travis Eikeness, four, and Trevor Lawson and Michael Hinton each ended the night with two points.

The Patriots, who start two 6' 8" players, won the battle of the boards, but the Tigers battled them tough, 35-30. Travis Eikeness, Keith Yagues and Matt Maurer each had six to lead the Tigers on the boards.

Mountain Home shot 38 percent (6/16) in three-point land, and connected on 47 percent (21/45) inside the arc. The Tigers, who were shooting just 41 percent from the free throw line coming in the game, connected on eight of nine for 89 percent.

Centennial hit six of 10 (60 percent) treys, 19 of 45 (42 percent) twos, and made 15 of 27 956 percent) from the charity stripe.

The Tigers closed out their non-conference schedule last (Tuesday) night at Jerome. They open SIC 4A conference play next week, then host Caldwell on Dec. 28 and Kuna on Dec. 30.