Tigers have rough week, dropping three games

It was a tough week of conference play for the Mountain Home Tigers as they dropped boys basketball games to Kuna, Bishop Kelly and Emmett.

Kuna 66

Mountain Home 47

Joe McDevitt scored 18 of his team-leading 19 points in the first half, 13 of them in the first quarter, as the Kuna Kavemen built up a 43-26 halftime lead on the Mountain Home Tigers on their way to a 66-47 SIC 4A boys basketball conference win last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

McDevitt, who scored just one point against the Tigers when the two teams played earlier in the season at Kuna, was five of eight on three-point attempts.

Mountain Home battled back from a 5-0 deficit to tie the game at 10-10, with 3:34 left in the first quarter.

That's when McDevitt got hot, hitting four treys the rest of the quarter as the Kavemen took at 25-18 lead at the end of the quarter.

Back-to-back baskets by Jacob Monasterio and Robert Moss brought the Tigers within three, 27-24. with 6:45 left in the first half. Kuna then went on a 14-0 run as the Tigers went scoreless for over five minutes, not scoring until 1:42 was left in the half on a basket by Tyler Hicks.

The closest Mountain Home came in the second half was 14 points, 51-37, with 3:03 left in the third period, and 59-45, with 4:35 left in the ball game.

A 7-2 run by Kuna made it a 66-47 final.

"Kuna's a good ball club," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot in radio comments after the game.

"They're 9-1 now and that's a pretty good example. I'm not going to take anything away from them. We were trying to play man defense the first quarter and they're too good to throw a gimmick on, they're too balanced. They had a new guy step up tonight and hit five threes in the first half. They found some offensive weapons tonight that we didn't know they had.

"I saw some real good bright spots tonight, but we were very inconsistent. We'd look good for two or three minutes, and then for a couple minutes or so we wouldn't get anything done. We've got to weed out the parts on the floor where we're not getting anything done."

Robert Moss led the Tigers in scoring with 12 points. Tyler Hicks set a new season high with nine points. Eric Gardzina tied his season high with nine points, as did Travis Eikeness with his six-point effort.

Jacob Monasterio added four points, Troy Williams scored three, and David Anderson and Kenny Florer both had two points.

Mountain Home hit 33 percent (5/15) of their treys, Kuna shot 41 percent (7/17). Mountain Home shot only 30 percent (13/43) inside the three-point line, while Kuna hit a sizzling 56 percent (18/32). Mountain Home shot 75 percent (6/8) from the free-throw line, while Kuna hit 64 percent (9/14).

Mountain Home out rebounded the Kavemen, 30-27, led by Tyler Hicks with nine and Eric Gardzina with six.

Bishop Kelly 74

Mountain Home 66

Ryan Bokan scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half, including 11 in the third quarter as the Bishop Kelly Knights overcame the Mountain Home Tigers, 74-66, Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The Tigers came out strong in the first half, and shot to a 17-11 lead after a quarter, and stretched their lead to 24-13, with 5:21 left in the half. The Knights battled back to within three, 31-28, at halftime.

Ryan Bokan found his long-range shooting eye in the third period, canning three of five trey attempts to help the Knights shoot out to a nine-pont lead. Mountain Home battled back within four, 51-47 with 12 seconds left in the quarter, but Stew Tracy hit a trey as the quarter wound down to give the Knights a 54-47 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Travis Eikeness scored six of his career high 15 points in the fourth quarter as the Tigers went on a 9-2 run to come within two, 60-58, with 5:07 left, but Mountain Home could come no closer as the Knights pushed their lead back up to 10 points, and won 74-66.

"That Bokan kid got on a streak there in the third quarter," said Coach Kerfoot in radio comments after the game. "We're in a league that seems like everybody's got a guy that can do that, and it's hard to pick out which one it's going to be on any given night.

"I was much more impressed with our intensity, our defensive effort and basically our overall play. We've been striving to get some of it, and we saw some of it for the first time tonight, but we've been working on it all year. I thought we had some real nice post feeds and (Travis) Eikeness did a real nice job inside, and Eric (Gardzina) did a good job battling inside.

"In a lot of our games, our big guys haven't been that active, but they looked good tonight. The guards got the ball in there. They recognized it and they got it in there."

Tyler Hicks and Travis Eikeness both set new season and career highs. Hicks scored 19 and Eikeness pumped in 15.

Jarrod Roberson hit for 10 points, Eric Gardzina and Jacob Monasterio both added six points, Troy Williams scored five, Robert Moss, three, and David Anderson ended the night with two points.

Mountain Home hit just 22 percent (4/18) of their three-pointers, and hit 50 percent (22/44) inside the arc. They shot 71 percent ( 10/14) from the free-throw line.

Bishop Kelly shot 29 percent (5/17) on long balls, but 55 percent (23/42) of their two-point shots, and connected on 13 of 23(57 percent) from the charity stripe.

Mountain Home out rebounded the Knights, 37-27, led by Tyler Hicks with eight, Travis Eikeness with seven and Eric Gardzina with six.

Emmett 55

Mountain Home 52

For the third game in a row, the Mountain Home Tigers were hurt by hot three-point shooting that turned the game around.

Saturday night at Emmett, the host Huskies got hot in the second half and hit six treys to battle from behind and beat the Mountain Home Tigers 55-52.

A 10-2 run by Mountain Home in the first quarter put the Tigers up, 12-7, after a quarter. They extended their lead to 11 points in the second period, and led 31-23 at halftime.

Mountain Home got baskets from Eric Gardzina, Troy Williams and Travis Eikeness to increase their lead to 37-23 with 5:05 left in the third quarter, but then the tide started turning.

Emmett got two three-pointers by Nick Hovda and one from Curtis Vickery to cut the Tiger lead to five, 39-34. Troy Williams got a steal and lay-up to make it 41-34, Mountain Home heading into the fourth quarter.

Jake Lyter, who had missed his first eight three-point attempts for Emmett, canned two in the fourth, the second one bringing the Huskies to within one, 43-42, with 4:29 left.

After another Tiger turnover -- they had six in the fourth quarter and 21 in the game -- Nick Hovda drained his third trey of the night, giving the Huskies a 45-43 lead with 4:10 left.

Jacob Monasterio sank two free throws to tie the game at 45-45 with 3:45 left, but Jake Lyter sank two free throws with 3:17 left to put the Huskies back in the lead 47-45.

Jacob Monasterio again sank two free throws to tie it at 47-47 with 2:07 left. The Tigers regained the lead 48-47 when Jarrod Roberson hit one of three free throws with 1:42 left. Four seconds later, Jake Lyter again sank two free throws -- he was 10 for 12 from the line in the game, and hit nine of 10 in the fourth quarter -- and the Huskies had the lead 49-48.

A basket by Nick Hovda with 1:16 left made it 51-48, Emmett.

Eric Gardzina sank two free throws to bring the Tigers back within one at 51-50 with 1:08 left.

Jake Lyter sank two more free throws with 36 seconds left to put the Huskies up 53-50.

A basket by Eric Gardzina once again pulled the Tigers within one, 53-52, with 22 seconds left, but a second later Jake Lyter was again fouled and sank two more free throws to make it a 55-52 ball game.

Mountain Home had several chances to score, but could not get a shot to drop, as the game ended 55-52 Emmett.

"We definitely let that one slip away from us," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "We can't have lull spots, we can't be inconsistent and that showed up for us.

"They got hot with threes and we got a little lazy. We started clearing out kind of 10 feet away and with our hands down, like, 'oh well, they're not going to make it any way,' and they started making them. We got lazy closing out, and you get lazy on defense, you're going to get beat."

Jarrod Roberson and Troy Williams both scored in double figures for Mountain Home. Roberson led the way with 14 points, Williams had a season high 10. Eric Gardzina added eight points, Jacob Monasterio scored seven, Tyler Hicks, five, Travis Eikeness, four, David Anderson and David Armstrong both scored two.

The Tigers hit three of 10 treys for 30 percent. Both teams shot 41 percent inside the arc. The Tigers connected on 10 of 17 (59 percent) free throws, Emmett made 17 of 28 (61 percent).

Mountain Home edged Emmett 28-27 in rebounds, led by Eric Gardzina with seven.

The Tigers host Vallivue tonight (Wednesday), and travel to Nampa on Friday night.

Coach Kerfoot hopes for better outings from his Tigers.

"We're just going to have to come out and be ready to play, and hopefully, we're be a little more consistent than we were tonight."