Tigers losing skid hits six

The current losing skid for the Mountain Home Tigers reached six last week with close losses to Vallivue and Nampa.

Of the 10 losses the Tigers have suffered so far in 14 games, five of them have been by under 10 points.

Vallivue 74

Mountain Home 69

Mountain Home dug itself a deep hole in the second half and battled back, but fell a bit short in its comeback against the Falcons last Wednesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers started well enough, shooting out to a 5-0 lead, but an 8-0 run by Vallivue in the final two minutes of the period produced a 15-10 Vallivue lead after a quarter.

Mountain Home had an 11-2 run in the second period to go up, 25-21, with three minutes left in the half, but with both of their big post players riding the bench with three fouls, the Tigers lost the lead, and trailed, 34-30 at halftime.

The Tigers fell behind by 13 points in the third, and it reached 18 in the fourth quarter, at 65-47, with 6:09 left, before Mountain Home finally started a rally.

Led by David Anderson and Eric Gardzina, who both scored seven points in the fourth quarter, the Tigers battled back, forcing eight turnovers, and cut the deficit to three, 72-69, with a minute left, and had their chances to cut the lead even more, but could come no closer, falling 74-69.

"I don't know why, but I thought we were a little flat tonight," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot.

"We've got to get a little more fired up. When we did get fired up, I thought we played pretty well.

"Defensively, I didn't think we played very well. We were constantly out of position and got a lot of fouls that way. One of our goals going in was to keep them off the foul line, and I think in the first half they probably had half their points off the foul line."

Actually, 10 of their 34 first half points came from the free-throw line, and 15 of their 40 second-half points came from the line.

Jarrod Roberson, David Anderson and Travis Eikeness paced the Tiger scoring against Vallivue. Roberson scored 17, Anderson netted a season high 15, and Eikeness ended the night with 10 points.

Robert Moss, Tyler Hicks and Eric Gardzina both scored seven -- Gardzina's all coming in the fourth quarter.

Jacob Monasterio added six points, and Troy Williams scored three.

Vallivue out-rebounded the Tigers 43-38. Eric Gardzina led the Tigers with 10 rebounds, Tyler Hicks and David Anderson both had seven.

The Tigers shot 27 percent (6/22) on three pointers, the Falcons 28 percent (7/25).

Inside the arc the Tigers shot 38 percent (21/55), Vallivue was 50 percent (14/28). The Falcons outscored Mountain Home 25-9 at the free-throw line, the Tigers connecting on nine of 15 (60 percent), while Vallivue was 25 of 35 (71 percent).

Nampa Bulldogs 61

Mountain Home 52

In a game marred by ugly displays of unsportsmanship, the Tigers momentarily lost their composure in the third and fourth quarters, both times resulting in double-digit leads by Nampa with the Bulldogs prevailing 61-52 Saturday night at Nampa High School.

The Tigers started slow, and trailed by as many as seven points in the first period, but rallied to within two, 12-10, at the quarter's end.

Mountain Home took their first lead of the game, 15-14, on a trey by Jacob Monasterio with 6:35 left in the first half.

The two teams then traded baskets, the lead going back and forth until baskets by Travis Eikeness and Jacob Monasterio put the Tigers up 23-20, with 3:52 left in the half.

Nampa then went on an 8-0 run to go up, 28-23 with under two minutes left before intermission. It was 28-27 Nampa at halftime.

The third quarter saw the Bulldogs able to go inside more, and a little momentary loss of composure by Mountain Home helped the Bulldogs up their lead to 43-31, with 2:06 left in the quarter.

The Tigers battled back within seven, 47-40, heading into the fourth period, and climbed back within one, 47-46, with 4:40 left.

Nampa's 6' 9" post Trevor Morris scored 10 of his 21 points in the fourth period -- six of them from the foul line -- as the Bulldogs once again took advantage of Tigers losing their composure and Nampa built up a 60-50 lead with 41.7 seconds left.

The game ended 61-52 Nampa.

The game was marred by several instances of Nampa student fans leaving their seats in the bleachers and coming down onto the floor to taunt Mountain Home players, and one student fan-player confrontation. Only after the confrontation did Nampa school officials attempt to make sure further instances did not happen by placing themselves in the student section.

"They should have done something much earlier," said Tiger JV coach Brent Keener, of the student fan situation. Keener made those remarks while filling in for Coach Kerfoot on the post-game radio comments, Kerfoot electing to see his team to the locker room and out to the bus afterwards to avoid any further incidents.

"We seemed to lose our composure a little with the hostile crowd. It's a difficult thing to do, but we've got to do a better job of staying composed and not letting their fans get to us."

Mountain Home had a miserable night shooting threes, hitting just one of 16 attempts, for six percent, but did shoot well inside the circle, connecting on 19 of 36 (53 percent).

Once again the difference of the game came at the foul line, as Nampa outscored the Tigers 29-11 at the line. Mountain Home hit 11 of 15 (73 percent) while Nampa made 29 of 37 (78 percent).

Mountain Home was whistled for 27 fouls, including two technicals.

The Tigers were at Jerome last (Tuesday) night for a non-conference game. They are at Caldwell in conference play Saturday night.