Bishop Kelly buries Tigers

The Mountain Home Tigers had closed out 2006 with a couple boys basketball wins over a pair of Wildcat teams. The Tigers opened the new year against the Bishop Kelly Knights Friday night, hoping to keep the streak alive, but Bishop Kelly had other ideas, scorching the nets for a 67-43 conference win over the Tigers in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Knights shot out to a 9-0 lead, Mountain Home finally getting on the scoreboard with 3:52 left in the quarter when Jake Posey sank two free throws. The first Tiger field goal came at the 2:35 mark, on a basket by Robert Moss. The Knights led, 19-6, after a quarter. Mountain Home settled down some in the second quarter, and managed to match baskets in the quarter, trailing at halftime, 31-18.

The third quarter saw Bishop Kelly start strong again, going on a 10-0 run to start the period, and extending their lead to 52-25 heading into the final quarter.

The Tigers cut the deficit to 20 points on a couple occasions in the fourth, but an 11-0 run by the Knights pushed their lead up to 67-36, before Mountain Home hit the final seven points of the game to make it a 67-43 final.

"I think we kind of got discouraged defensively, and it carried over offensively, and I didn't think we executed offensively very well," said Mountain Home Tiger boys basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game.

"They came out and jumped on us pretty good, and we kind of stood flatfooted. It was kind of back to the deer in the headlights look again, and we froze when we saw any pressure.

"On the other side, I thought we had some good looks and were starting to find some people in the second quarter and again in the fourth, but it was way too-little, too-late. We've got to be ready to start and never let it go down."

Robert Moss and Jake Posey both scored in double figures for the Tigers, Moss had 17, Posey, 11. Nick Barrie added six points, Tim Beard, four, Brandon Doble and Ryan Carlen, two each, and Kyle Kerfoot scored one.

Mountain Home put up 20 three-point attempts, making only two, for a frigid 10 percent. The Tigers shot much better inside the arc, canning 14 of 29 for 48 percent. The Tigers shot 60 percent (9/15) from the free-throw line.

Bishop Kelly shot 42 percent (5/12) on long balls, and a sizzling 64 percent (21/33) inside. They hit 10 of 15 (67 percent) from the foul line.

The Knights had a commanding 32-20 edge on the boards, Nick Barrie and Jake Posey both had five rebounds to lead Mountain Home.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 2-7 overall, and 1-3 in SIC 4A

The Tigers hosted Filer last (Tuesday) night, and get back into conference play this weekend, traveling to Emmett on Friday night, and hosting Middleton Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.