Tigers pick up road win against Emmett

One night after losing to Bishop Kelly for their sixth straight loss, the Mountain Home Tigers won on the road at Emmett.

Bishop Kelly 68

Mountain Home 58

The Mountain Home Tigers fell behind early to the Bishop Kelly Knights Friday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, and although they hit nine three-pointers on the night, could not make up a whole lot of ground on the scoreboard, losing to the Knights by 10.

Keith Yagues and Brian Fields both canned two treys in the opening quarter, but it was not enough to overcome the Knights, who led 21-16 after a quarter thanks in part by nine first-quarter points from Steve Tracy.

Two free throws by Travis Eikeness to start the second period brought the Tigers within three, 21-18, but Bishop Kelly stretched it to 27-18 before a Keith Yagues three made it 27-21, with 4:40 left.

An 8-0 run by Bishop Kelly gave them their biggest lead, 35-21, before a basket and free throw by Chase Bitterman made it 35-24.

Bishop Kelly got the last basket of the half to lead 37-24 at halftime.

Bishop Kelly hit the first six points of the second half to increase its lead to 43-24, but Mountain Home battled back to cut the deficit to 55-43 heading into the final quarter.

The Tigers could get no closer than 10 points in the fourth, as the Knights kept them at bay for a 68-58 win.

"That's a good basketball team," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot in radio comments after the game. "I thought they shot the basketball very well, especially that first half. We let them have a couple offensive rebounds too many, I would have liked to have taken some of them back, and I thought we missed a couple lay-ups in that first half, I'd like to have those back too, but I was happy with our kids because I thought we competed the whole game. I thought defensively, we're starting to play pretty well."

Keith Yagues, who connected on three of 10 trey attempts, led the Tigers with 11 points. Jarrod Roberson and Chase Bitterman each added nine points. Michael Hinton had a season high eight points, Brian Fields scored seven, Travis Eikeness had six, Matt Maurer, five, and Jonathan Hutchins, three.

Mountain Home hit nine of 23 (39 percent) three-point attempts, but shot just 35 percent (12/34) inside the circle. They shot just 50 percent (7/14) from the free-throw line.

Bishop Kelly, which hit 56 percent of their three attempts at Bishop Kelly, only hit three of 16 long balls for 19 percent, but shot 51 percent (24/47) inside. They hit 11 of 19 (58 percent) free throws.

The Knights dominated the boards, outrebounding Mountain Home 43-32. Trevor Lawson and Travis Eikeness led Mountain Home with seven rebounds apiece. T.J. Macy had 15 for Bishop Kelly.

Mountain Home 50

Emmett 44

Saturday night's SIC 4A conference game at Emmett had huge implications for the post season for both ball clubs. Going into the game tied at 1-10 in league play, the winner would have the inside track for the number seven seed, while the loser will probably finish last and get the number eight seed. So how is that a motivating factor in the game?

The number eight seed opens the District III 4A Tournament against top seeded Skyview, who has been unbeatable as of late, while the number seven seed opens against the number two seed, which could either be Kuna, Bishop Kelly, Nampa or Caldwell, with two games left on the schedule.

Whatever the motivation, Mountain Home showed up at Emmett with its game face on and proceeded to play one of their better games of the season, especially defensively, which helped produce a 50-44 win over the Huskies.

The Tigers got baskets from Travis Eikeness and Matt Maurer to take a 4-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game.

Emmett came back in the next two minutes to take a 5-4 lead, but the Tigers regained the lead with two free throws by Jarrod Roberson with 2:45 left in the opening period.

It would be a lead they would not surrender the rest of the night.

A trey by Keith Yagues put Mountain Home up 9-5 heading into the second quarter. Emmett whittled the lead down to one, at 13-12, but the Tigers spurted back out to a 21-14 halftime advantage.

The Tigers built up a nine point lead, and led 32-23 with 2:50 left in the third period. The Huskies came back and narrowed it to one, 32-31, after three.

All night long, when the Tigers offense would seem to sputter, the defense would come up with some steals and put points on the board. Such was the case in the fourth quarter, when the Tigers forced eight turnovers, and hit eight of 11 from the free-throw line to pull away for the 50-44 win.

"I was pleased with the defensive effort the guys put out tonight," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "The kids really stepped up the defensive pressure and made things happen for us."

Keith Yagues and Jarrod Roberson both scored 13 points to lead the Tigers in scoring, for Yagues, it was a new season high. Matt Maurer scored seven points, Travis Eikeness, six, Brian Fields and Trevor Lawson both netted five, and Steven Oswald, one, to round out the scoring.

Mountain Home netted just two of 13 (15 percent) three-point attempts, but shot 45 percent (14/31) inside the arc. They made 55 percent (16/29) of their free throws.

Emmett shot 24 percent (4/17) on treys, 45 percent (9/20) on twos, and 61 percent (14/23) fro the charity stripe.

Mountain Home won the battle of the boards 31-24, led by Travis Eikeness with nine and Trevor Lawson with six.

The Tigers improved to 2-10 in league play and 3-15 overall. They played their final home game last (Tuesday) night against Nampa, and close out their regular season schedule Friday night at Vallivue.