Lady Tigers defeat Bishop Kelly

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers saw their win streak snap at three, with a loss to Skyview but they bounced back to beat Bishop Kelly to pick up two wins last week.

Mountain Home 50

Kuna 38

Mountain Home shot out to a 17-5 first quarter lead and increased it to 27-8 at halftime on their way to picking up their third straight win last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Kuna got to the Lady Tigers for 20 points in the third quarter, but Mountain Home still had a commanding 38-28 lead heading into the final period.

"That was a tough one! They had a big third quarter and scored 20 points on us -- that's a lot of points!" said Lady Tiger coach Brian English.

"But we didn't quit, we didn't get down, we just fought back and played a really good fourth quarter defensively, and that's what hung on for us."

Marquina Gilliam and Ali Hillman both scored in double figures, Gilliam with 17, Hillman, 10. Jessica Egusquiza added six points, Erica Stanton and Lisa Kellerman both scored five, Kaleena Bluemer, Erin Mullen and Sammy Dodge each scored two, and Ashley Kipp had one point.

Mountain Home shot 37 percent (19/51) from the field, including four of 10 (40 percent) treys. They hit on eight of 14 (57 percent) free throws.

Kuna shot 35 percent (16/46) from the field, but were a frigid nine percent (1/11) on threes. They made just five of 11 (46 percent) from the charity stripe.

Skyview 64

Mountain Home 34

Skyview took advantage of a poor shooting night for the Lady Tigers in rolling to a lopsided win at Mountain Home last Thursday night.

While Mountain Home shot just 13 percent (4/32) in the first half, the Lady Hawks shot a sizzling 52 percent (13/25), and hit five first-half treys and led 35-11 at the half.

Mountain Home did warm up and scored 15 points in the third period, but Skyview tallied 20, to stretch their lead to 55-26 heading into the fourth.

"You've got to give them credit, they shot the ball extremely well," said Coach English.

"They played wonderful defense. It was their night, not ours. We played a very poor game tonight, and what I'm more upset about was our lack of playing defense tonight. Defense predicates everything, and we did not play any defense tonight."

Marquina Gilliam led the Lady Tigers with 13 points. Jessica Egusquiza netted eight points, Ali Hillman, five. Lisa Kellerman and Ashley Kipp both scored three, for Kipp, a new season high, and Teysena Chatman scored two points.

Mountain Home ended the night shooting 24 percent (13/54) from the field, and shot just 14 percent (1/7) on three-pointers.

Their shooting problems also plagued them at the foul line, where they shot just 33 percent (7/21).

Skyview ended the night connecting on 25 of 54 (46 percent) from the floor, including 47 percent (8/17) on treys. They shot 55 percent (6/11) from the free-throw line.

Mountain Home 36

Bishop Kelly 30

The Lady Tigers battled Bishop Kelly at Bishop Kelly Saturday night with third place in the SIC 4A conference standings on the line, as both teams came in with 7-4 records.

In a great defensive battle, the Lady Tigers prevailed to gain a season sweep of Bishop Kelly.

Mountain Home led, 7-3, after a quarter, and went into the locker room up, 12-7 at halftime.

Bishop Kelly went on an 8-0 run to start the third quarter and took a 15-12 lead, and upped it to 18-13 with 3:16 left in the period.

Back came Mountain Home with a 7-0 run to take a 20-18 lead with 1:34 left in the quarter.

Stefanie Loisate's trey pushed the Lady Knights back into the lead, 21-20, but Marquina Gilliam's basket gave Mountain Home the lead back at 22-21. She then sank two free throws with 36 seconds left to give the Lady Tigers a 24-21 lead heading into the final quarter.

After Kellie Maggard canned a trey to tie the game at 24-24 early in the fourth, Erica Stanton came down and drained two threes in a row from the corner, and Mountain Home went up, 30-24, with 4:56 left.

The closest Bishop Kelly would come after that was within four points, as the Lady Tigers held them off for a 36- 30 win.

"It all comes down to defense," said Coach English.

"We played great defense tonight and we held a pretty good team to some poor shooting percentages tonight, and that will win you ball games."

Marquina Gilliam led the Lady Tigers with 12 points, Erica Stanton chipped in 10, and Ali Hillman added nine and brought down 10 rebounds. Lisa Kellerman scored four, and Jessica Egusquiza ended up with one point.

Mountain Home shot 30 percent (11/37) from the field, including three of nine (33 percent) three-pointers. They shot 55 percent (11/20) from the free-throw line.

Bishop Kelly shot just 21 percent (9/43) from the floor, and just 17 percent (4.24) on treys. They put in eight of 14 (57 percent) free throws.

The win improved the Lady Tigers to 8-4 in SIC 4A conference play, and 9-9 overall. They played at Emmett last (Tuesday) night, and close out their regular season schedule at Vallivue tomorrow (Thursday) night.