Lady Tigers fall to Wendell at SLC Delta Center

The Lady Trojans from Wendell went on an 11-0 run over a five-minute period of time in the third and fourth quarters to pull away from Mountain Home, and then held off the Lady Tigers to win, 43- 35 at the Energy Solutions Arena (formerly the Delta Center) in Salt Lake City, Utah, last Friday.

Both teams seemed in awe of the arena early, Mountain Home up by one, 6-5, after the first eight minutes.

The Lady Tigers enjoyed their biggest lead when Chantell Crane

canned a three with 1:20 left in the first half to make it 15-11, Mountain Home, but Wendell hit the last five points of the half to nudge ahead, 16-15, at the half.

The game, which had 11 lead changes and six ties, went back and forth in the third quarter, with Mountain Home going quiet the last 2:22 seconds of the period to trail, 30-28, heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home did not score until Emily Moranda hit a free throw with 5:29 left, to cut the deficit to 39-29. Jessica Egusquiza hit two treys later in the quarter for Mountain Home's only other points in the period. It ended up 43-35, Wendell.

"I think they came to play the game a little more than we did," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Brian English after the game.

"We came to play on the floor, they came to play a basketball game. We just didn't seem to get it going today. I've always been a believer that if you don't play defense, you can't win, and we didn't play defense. We played crummy defense and it came back to haunt us, and boy were they good foul shooters -- holy cow!"

Jessica Egusquiza led the Lady Tigers with 11 points. Emily Moranda and Chantell Crane both added nine points, Moranda had nine rebounds and five steals.

Hannah Zamora, Sammy Dodge and Francesca Hale each scored two points.

The Lady Tigers open their SIC 4A conference schedule tomorrow (Thursday) night at Kuna.

"They're going to be very good," said Coach English. "They've got a new coach and she's got them playing pretty up-tempo basketball. We've got to get over our funk, and when we do, we'll be all right, and if we don't, we'll be in trouble."

The Lady Tigers are home Saturday against Middleton, with sophomore action at 11 a.m., JV at 12:30 p.m., and varsity at 2 p.m. They're also home on the night of Dec. 5 against Columbia. Both games are conference encounters.