Lady Tigers beat Kuna at the buzzer

It was Ashley Kipp's only field goal of the night, but with less than three seconds left her 12-foot jumper swished the net and gave Mountain Home a hard-fought 41-39 win over Kuna in the SIC 4A conference opener for both ball clubs last Thursday night at Kuna.

Both teams had a frigid first half shooting the ball and the scores reflected it. Mountain Home managed just a free throw until Jessica Egusquiza's trey with seven seconds left in the first period, and that gave Mountain Home a 4-3 lead at the quarter's end.

Emily Moranda scored eight of her 10 points in the second period, as the Lady Tigers managed to stretch their lead to four points. Mountain Home led 14-11 at the half.

Samantha Kerfoot scored eight of her 10 points in the third quarter, when the Lady Kavemen warmed up and regained the lead, and headed into the final period up,26-24.

A basket by Chantell Crane and two free throws by Brandie Riggs put the Lady Tigers back in the lead, 28-27, with 6:32 left.

Two free throws by Jessica Egusquiza 20 seconds later upped the lead to 30-27.

After Brianna Hansen hit one of two free throws for Kuna to cut it to 30-28, Egusquiza sank two more free throws to make it 32-28, Mountain Home, with 5:38 left.

Brianna Hansen scored to cut it to 32-30. Jessica Egusquiza hit one of two free throws to make it 33-30, with 5:20 left.

Hansen sank two free throws to cut it to 33-32, with 4:50 left, and a minute later hit a field goal to put Kuna up 34-33. A basket by Chelsi Tolbert put Kuna up, 36-33, with 3:06 left.

Dani Dean scored to cut the deficit to one, but Chelsi Tolbert scored again to make it 38-35, Kuna with 2:26 left.

Two more free throws by Jessica Egusquiza brought the Lady Tigers back within one, 38-37, with 1:40 left. Egusquiza scored with 1:04 left to give Mountain Home the lead, 39-38.

Mountain Home then missed four straight free throws that could have increased their lead.

Brianna Hansen hit the first of two free throws with 14 seconds left that tied the game. She missed the second one, and Chelsi Tolbert rebounded but missed. Chantell Crane got the rebound and passed it down the floor to Ashley Kipp, and her jumper brought victory for the Lady Tigers, 41-39.

"I don't need too many of these -- that was wild," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Brian English in radio comments after the game. "They never quit. We got down and they could have folded, but they battled back and they played hard, and that's all you can ask them to do.

"It was one of those games where neither team was really shooting well. Neither one of us shot over 30 percent from the floor for the game. It was ugly that way, but you know sometimes you've got to win ugly. We came over here and got drilled last year, so I'll take a win on someone else's court any day."

Jessica Egusquiza led the Lady Tigers with 15 points, Emily Moranda added 10. Chantell Crane scored seven, Dani Dean, four, Ashley Kipp, three, and Brandie Riggs, two.

Middleton 65

Lady Tigers 29

The Lady Tigers hosted unbeaten Middleton in an afternoon conference game on Saturday, and fell to the visitors, 65-29.

The Lady Vikings shot out to a 22-6 first-quarter lead and steadily increased their lead over the flu-plagued Lady Tigers.

"We just didn't play very well, and when you don't play very well against good teams, they're going to come get you," said Coach English.

The Lady Tigers did do a good job of shutting down Courtney Johnson, Middleton's 6' 3" post, who had just six points.

"We were concentrating on taking away their height advantage -- she's 6' 3" and my tallest girl is 6' 0," said Coach English. "We thought maybe that would work, but the other girls picked up the pace for her and they just put a beating on us."

Jessica Egusquiza and Emily Moranda both had six points to lead Mountain Home. Brandie Riggs and Alyssa Saltzgaber each scored four, Hannah Zamora, three, and Ashley Kipp, Sheena Nelsen and Chantell Crane all scored two points.

The loss dropped the Lady Tigers to 3-4 on the season and 1-1 in conference play. They hosted Columbia last (Tuesday) night, and travel to Skyview on Friday night, both games conference encounters.

"We've got to regroup and practice and hopefully we can get everybody healthy and see what we can do. Hopefully the flu bug has gone through us and we can get our act together and come out and get back to winning some conference games," English said.