Lady Tigers go two and out at district

It's finally over.

With losses to Emmett and Kuna, the basketball season has come to a close for the Mountain Home Lady Tigers.

Emmett 68

Mountain Home 27

The top-seeded Lady Huskies from Emmett went on a 14-0 run over a nearly five minute span of the first quarter to break open a close ball game and shatter any hopes the Lady Tigers may have had for a first-round upset in the District Tournament opener last Tuesday at Nampa High School.

The Lady Huskies were dealt a blow when 6' 0" senior Jordan Rienstra sprained an ankle in warm-ups. Emmett scored the first basket of the game, but Erica Stanton drained a trey to put the Lady Tigers up 3-2.

After Megan Rolland scored to put Emmett up 4-3, Nicole Roelofs sank two free throws with 5:00 left to make it 5-4, Mountain Home. The Lady Tigers would not score again until the final seconds of the quarter, after a 14-0 run by Emmett. It was 18-7, Emmett at the end of the first quarter.

Megan Rolland scored 12 points for Emmett in the first quarter. Brittany Anderson took over in the second period, scoring 12 of her game-high 23 points in that eight-minute stretch, including two three-pointers. Emmett led 42-15 at the half.

Things went from bad to worse for Mountain Home in the second half. In the third quarter, they made just two free throws and one basket and trailed 61-19 heading into the final quarter.

Mountain Home managed two field goals and four free throws in the fourth quarter, and actually outscored the Lady Huskies 8-7, to make it a 68-27 final.

"We anticipated what they'd come out with and worked on it, and when we were up 5-4, we were feeling pretty good, but it was not good after that," said Lady Tiger coach Karen Kohring in radio comments after the game. "We anticipated that our 1-3-1 could shut down their three-pointers, which it did, but for some reason tonight, our back-side was not dropping in and having no off-side help, allowed them easy lay-ups on the backside. I think we saw more of a team effort from Emmett tonight than we did the first couple of games."

Erica Stanton led the Lady Tigers with nine points, six rebounds and three steals. Nicole Roelofs scored five points, Dani Dean had four points, six rebounds and three steals. Erin Mullen added three points, and Bethany Law scored two.

Mountain Home shot a chilly 15 percent (9/59) from the field for the game, including just eight percent (3/34) in the second half. They hit only one of 12 (8 percent) three-point attempts, but did shoot well from the free-throw line, making eight of 10 for 80 percent.

Emmett made 42 percent (24/57) from the field, 43 percent (3/7) on treys, and a sizzling 86 percent (18/21) from the foul line.

Other first-round action saw Vallivue defeat Kuna 43-27, Bishop Kelly beat Caldwell 37-25, and Skyview over Nampa 49-25.

Kuna 35

Mountain Home 30

The Lady Tigers came to play last Thursday night when they faced Kuna in a loser's out game at Nampa.

After Kuna scored to take a 2-0 lead, Nicole Roelofs canned a three-pointer to give Mountain Home a 3-2 lead with 6:33 left in the period. Roelofs scored seven of her game-high 13 points in the first quarter, but the Lady Tigers trailed 14-7 after eight minutes.

An 8-0 run by Mountain Home to start the second gave the Lady Tigers a 15-14 lead with 3:22 left in the half. Emily Naccarato hit three of four free throws to give Kuna the lead back at 17-15. Nicole Roelofs basket with 1:47 left tied it at 17-17, but a 7-0 run by Kuna the rest of the way made it 24-17, Kuna at the half.

Neither team could find the basket in the third period, as Kuna scored just two points, but Mountain Home managed just three, and it was 26-20, Kuna, heading into the final quarter.

Michelle Reynolds hit a couple treys in the fourth quarter, the second one bringing the Lady Tigers within two, at 30-28, with 5:15 left, but they came no closer, as Kuna got two baskets from Kendra Long to push the lead to 34-28, and then were able to take some time off the clock. Mountain Home managed just two free throws by Nicole Roelofs the rest of the way, as Kuna won it 35-30.

"Both teams came to play," said Coach Kohring. "I appreciate the efforts of the Lady Tigers tonight. They came to the very last second. We talked earlier about putting four quarters together, and I think we did. It looks like that third quarter, when combined we scored five points, I still can't say that we didn't play that quarter, so I appreciate them playing all four quarters, but we gave Kuna way too many offensive boards and way too many second looks. We played them even, so if we could have gone basket for basket without those second looks for their offensive end, but then we've got to convert on our end."

Nicole Roelofs' game-high 13 points tied her season high. Erica Stanton added seven points, Michelle Reynolds scored six, Bethany Law added three, and Katie Roelofs ended with one point, and led the Lady Tigers with nine rebounds.

Mountain Home shot just 16 percent (8/51) from the field, and were 25 percent (3/12) on threes. They made 11 of 18 (61 percent) from the free-throw line.

Kuna shot 24 percent (14/59) from the field, and only eight percent (1/12) on treys. They shot 55 percent (6/11) from the foul line.

The season comes to a close now for the Lady Tigers who went winless in 22 ball games.

Despite the lack of wins, Coach Kohring thought the girls were winners.

"Coming in tonight 0-21, to not win a game, and play to the last buzzer, I appreciate their effort and determination. They are a classy bunch. If we could have done something totally different -- we talked about a magic pill and they said, 'no we don't want to take a magic pill, we want to work at it and work hard at it,' and they did. At practice last night, we were still practicing, we were still learning, so it's a good bunch to do that, and you can't say that probably with every team, but these gals held together, and I really appreciate their effort."

The Lady Tigers ended the season with just one senior, and Kohring sees the potential there for next year.

"We hope our nucleus pulls together in the off season. We know we have spring sports that they're going to go on and do.

"We have Summer League that we need to play to get ourselves up to a competitive level in the 4As. We know we play the 5As on our schedule and we have to be topnotch to be competitive against them, but there's a lot of things that individually we can improve on, and that's what we'll focus on."