Tigers end regular season with two losses

The Mountain Home Tigers had their moments of greatness last week, but they were overshadowed by minutes of not-so-greatness as they closed out their regular season with losses to Nampa and Vallivue.

Nampa 69

Mountain Home 53

After playing the Bulldogs tough in the first half, the Mountain Home Tigers seemed to lose their intensity in the second half, as Nampa pulled away for the conference win.

The lead changed hands four times in the first period, with Nampa leading 19-15 after a quarter.

The Tigers battled back in the second, and built up a four-point lead, before Nampa cut it to two, 32-30 at the half.

Mountain Home went over three minutes before scoring in the third period, as Nampa led 38-32, before Matt Maurer's trey cut it to 38-35, with 4:42 left in the quarter.

Nampa stretched the lead out to eight and the closest Mountain Home came after that was five, and a trey by Louis Quintana to end the third put the Bulldogs up 52-44 heading into the fourth quarter.

Louis Quintana hit another trey to start the fourth, and an 8-0 run a few minutes later pushed the Nampa lead to 63-46. The closest the Tigers got after that was 13, at 63-50, with 2:50 left.

The Bulldogs spread it out and took some time off the clock and cashed in at the free-throw line for a 69-53 final.

"I thought we were hitting on the right cylinder sometimes," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "I thought tonight we did a nice job, except we couldn't keep going in the third quarter. We came out and we didn't execute. I think we went over three minutes and we didn't run anything, and we had zero points to show for it.

"We took quick shots each time we came down. For the most part we had been getting away from that, and it's been working pretty good, but I guess we just have lapses where we go back to our old ways."

Keith Yagues capped off Senior Night with a new season high, scoring 18 points. Jarrod Roberson added 15, followed by Matt Maurer with eight, Chase Bitterman finished with five, Trevor Lawson, four, Jonathan Hutchins, two, and Steven Oswald, one.

The Tigers shot 27 percent (4/15) on three-pointers, and hit 41 percent (13/32) inside the arc. They hit 71 percent (15/21) from the foul line.

Nampa shot 38 percent (6/16) on treys, 59 percent (19/32) inside, and hit just 48 percent (13/27) from the free-throw line.

Nampa out rebounded the Tigers 19-9 in the second half to win the battle of the boards, 29-26.

Matt Maurer and Travis Eikeness each brought down five rebounds to lead Mountain Home.

Vallivue 64

Mountain Home 47

A frigid second quarter in which the Tigers only managed three points forced them to play catch-up the rest of the way Saturday night at Vallivue, and there was no magic comeback.

Both teams waxed hot from three-point land in the first quarter, with Mountain Home canning four of seven, while the Falcons hit on five of 10, with Zach Taylor draining three on the way to 11 first-quarter points. Vallivue led 23-19 after a quarter.

The Tigers' bad quarter has traditionally been the third, but they went ice cold in the second, hitting just one of 12 field goals, that a trey by Brian Fields at the 4:22 mark of the period. That brought the Tigers within seven, at 29-22. It would be their only points of quarter, as the Falcons got eight points from 6' 6" sophomore Steve Anderson, and four more from Zach Taylor to take a 35-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Mountain Home only hit one of 10 field goals in the third period, but Jarrod Roberson hit eight of 10 free throws as the Tigers trailed 44-32 heading into the final quarter.

Mountain Home got no closer than 12 in the fourth, as the Falcons stretched it to 19, with it ending 64-47, Vallivue.

"Basically we were standing around and not utilizing their zone very well," said Coach Kerfoot after the game.

"We were kind of in that mode where we weren't using each other or playing together and had no flow at all.

"In the first half, I don't think we played very good defense. I thought our approach in the first half was we came out and instead of trying to work hard on defense and be a team on offense, we weren't playing any defense and we were just throwing the ball around and shooting threes with nobody trying to rebound on offense, and that usually produces about three points in a half.

"I did think the second half we played a little bit better defensively. We got after it a little bit and made some things happen off some steals, but then that also opened up the floor to some areas we didn't cover, which is why we haven't been pressing, and eventually it was kind of like two steps forward and three steps back."

Jarrod Roberson led the Tigers with 16 points, including 9/11 from the free-throw line. Chase Bitterman netted eight points, Matt Maurer, seven, Trevor Lawson, six, Keith Yagues and Brian Fields, three each, and Travis Eikeness and Michael Hinton, both had two.

Mountain Home shot 27 percent (6/22) on three-pointers, but just hit two of 15 (13 percent) after the first period. The Tigers shot just 29 percent (8/28) on two-pointers. The Tigers hit 62 percent (13/21) from the free-throw line.

Vallivue shot 37 percent (7/19) on treys, 50 percent (19/38) inside, and 63 percent (5/8) from the foul line.

The Falcons dominated the backboards, bringing down 41 caroms to just 21 for Mountain Home. Matt Maurer and Brian Fields led the Tigers with four rebounds each.

The Tigers finished the regular reason 2-12 in conference and 3-17 overall, and opened District III 4A Tournament action last night (Tuesday) as the number seven seed, facing number two seed Bishop Kelly.

Talking about the cliché of the "brand new season," where you throw out the regular season records and start over 0-0, Kerfoot added, "But you either better come out and play well, or you're not going to be playing very long! Hopefully, we'll come out and we'll want to play both offensively and defensively, and we'll play together as a team."

Other first-round action last night had top-seeded Skyview opening against number eight seed Emmett, and fourth seed Caldwell taking on number five seed Vallivue, those games at Vallivue, and the other game at Caldwell was number three seed Nampa against six-seeded Kuna.

Second round action continues Saturday night at the two sites, with Tuesday night's losers playing at Caldwell, and Tuesday night's winners playing at Vallivue.

Mountain Home will play at 8 p.m. Saturday. If they beat Bishop Kelly, they will play at Vallivue, if they lose, they play at Caldwell.