Tigers fall to Skyview, Caldwell

The Mountain Home Tigers came up short in conference road games at Skyview and Caldwell last week.

Skyview 82

Mountain Home 46

The Mountain Home Tigers stayed with the high flying Skyview Hawks for a quarter before the Hawks took it to another level and ran and shot their way to an 82-46 SIC 4A conference boys basketball win over the Tigers last Tuesday night at Skyview.

Mountain Home stayed close in the first quarter, and trailed only 14-12 after the first quarter, but a 13-0 start to the second period for Skyview pushed them out to a 27-12 lead before a basket by Matt Maurer broke the run nearly halfway through the quarter.

Skyview took a 36-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Skyview lit it up from outside in the third period, hitting six treys, four by Matt Ballenger, as they built their lead to 62-35 heading into the final quarter.

Mountain Home got within 23 a couple of times in the final quarter, but a 9-0 run by Skyview at the end made it an 82-46 final.

"We had some nice pressure there for a while," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot.

"I don't know if we just got tired, or that they stepped it up on defense. I thought the difference in the first half was our turnovers, and the points they got off our turnovers. They came out and put some pressure on, and we came out and got denied, and instead of keeping on moving, we stopped and stood around and we ended up having to make a pass, and there really wasn't anyone to throw to, and we can't really fault just the guy that's making the pass. I kind of fault our motion on that.

"They shot the ball real well in the second half, and that made us have to go man, and we don't match up that well against them."

"Jarrod Roberson and Chase Bitterman led the Tigers in scoring at Skyview. Roberson scored 13 points, Bitterman added 11. Matt Maurer scored eight, Keith Yagues, six, Trevor Lawson, four, Brian Fields and Travis Eikeness both finished with two points.

Mountain Home hit four of 15 treys (27 percent), and shot 44 percent (14/32) inside the arc.

The Tigers connected on six of eight (75 percent) free throws.

The Hawks connected on nine of 21 treys (43 percent), 25 of 49 (51 percent) two-pointers, and were five of eight (63 percent) from the free throw line.

The Hawks, who start 6' 8", 6'4", 6'2", 6'1" and 6'0" and have 6'6" and 6'4" coming in off the bench, outrebounded the Tigers 35-27. Matt Maurer led the Tiger with eight rebounds.

Caldwell 59

Mountain Home 48

The Tigers got off to a good start at Caldwell last Friday night, and took a 13-7 lead into the second quarter. They withstood a Cougar rally and shot out to a 26-16 lead before a three-pointer by Mario Betancourt -- his only one of the half -- cut the lead to 26-19 at halftime.

Trey Spath sparked the Cougars in the third quarter, scoring nine of his 15 points to lead a 23-6 assault that had Mountain Home trailing 42-32 heading into the final quarter.

The Tigers battled back in the fourth, and cut the margin to two, 46-44, on a basket by Keith Yagues with 4:20 left, and again at 48-46, on a Brian Fields basket with 3:20 remaining, but Caldwell then went on a 9-0 run to go up 57-46 before Matt Maurer scored to make it 57-48 with 32 seconds left.

Caldwell won it, 59-48.

"I don't know what it is, but basically, we don't come out to win the game in the third quarter," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "We don't come out to do it as a team, and I think we just had a breakdown, offensively and defensively, in the third quarter."

The third quarter has been Mountain Home's worst quarter of the game for the season. Through 16 games, they're scored 159 points, 9.9 per game, while their opponents have scored 304 points, an average of 19 per game.

Chase Bitterman led the Tigers with 14 points before fouling out of the game. Matt Maurer tied his season high, with 12 points. Keith Yagues and Jarrod Roberson both netted nine points, and Brian Fields added four.

Coach Kerfoot liked the defensive effort against Caldwell's Mario Betancourt, who hit five treys and scored 19 points against the Tigers at Mountain Home. The 5' 7" junior ended the night with 10 points, and hit only two treys.

"I thought we did a nice job, particularly in that first half. We weren't going to let him get out and get on us like he did last time, and that was a team effort, too. We were talking, we were switching, but that wasn't there in the second half. It was in the first half, it wasn't there in the third quarter, and we've got to be able to play that and do that for four quarters.

"There were some good points to the game, even though we got down. I saw a fight to get back in it, and we've just got to learn to execute under the pressure of a close game. I didn't really see us executing our offense real well. At times we did, and we kind of had to make some substitutions for that to happen."

Mountain Home hit on 50 percent (7/14) of their three-point attempts, and 52 percent (11/21) inside, but were a horrendous 38 percent (5/13) from the free-throw line.

Caldwell hit 31 percent (5/16) long range, and 57 percent (12/21) inside, and cashed in on 80 percent (20/30) from the foul line.

The Tigers won the battle of the boards, 23-16, with Trevor Lawson leading the way with five rebounds.

The Tigers return to action this weekend, hosting the Bishop Kelly Knights on Friday night, and traveling to Emmett on Saturday night.