Tiger basketball team struggles over the holidays

The Mountain Home Tigers dropped a conference boys basketball game at Kuna, and split their two games at the Baker Holiday Tournament.

Kuna 56

Tigers 48

The Mountain Home Tigers fell behind in the second half and came up short last week as they lost to the Kuna Kavemen 56-48 at Kuna.

The two teams battled back and forth for nearly three quarters, with Mountain Home up 12-11 after a quarter, and the score tied at 19 at the half.

Ian Mills paced an 18-point Kuna effort in the third quarter that saw the Kavemen move out to a 37-32 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Oddly enough, Mills, who scored an accidental basket for Mountain Home to put the Tigers up 25-24, scored the final 13 points of the quarter for Kuna as they built up the five-point lead.

Kuna increased its lead to 44-33 about three minutes into the fourth quarter. The Tigers got a trey by Nick Barrie and baskets from Kyle Kerfoot and Jake Posey to narrow the Kuna lead to four, 44-40, with 3:17 left, but after a Kuna timeout, the Kavemen built the lead back up to seven.

From there, the Tigers could get no closer than five and Kuna stretched it to nine. The final score was 56-48, Kuna.

"I thought there were some moments in the game -- maybe one- or two-minute spans -- where we just didn't play very well," said Tiger boys basketball coach Tony Kerfoot.

"We had some bad lapses that kind of caused more problems later on.

"I thought we played pretty good at times, but we've got to eliminate those bad spurts."

Jake Posey led the Tigers with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Nick Barrie and Travis Gordon both finished with nine points, Alex Campbell scored five, Kyle Kerfoot, four, Jake Hiler, three, and Danny Snelgrow, two.

Tigers 73

Mac High 51

The Tigers opened play at the Baker Holiday Tournament against the McLoughlin (Mac-Hi) Pioneers, getting balanced scoring in a 73-51 win.

The Tigers went on an 8-0 run in the latter part of the first quarter to pull away from a 9-9 tie and go out to a 21-12 lead after a quarter.

A 9-2 run to start the second period pushed the lead up to 30-14, but Mac-Hi responded with a 13-2 run to cut the lead to five, 32-27, with two minutes left in the half. An 8-2 run by the Tigers put the lead at 40-29 Mountain Home at halftime.

Mountain Home used a 10-0 run early and an 11-0 run late in the third quarter to push the lead up to 63-41, heading into the final quarter.

The two teams traded baskets in the fourth as the Tigers won, 73-51.

"Offensively, I thought we moved the ball better, and I think we had an extra bounce in our step tonight, and I think part of that is confidence that we lost somewhere along the way," said Coach Kerfoot after the game.

"I know I'd noticed that in us as we played our last couple of games. We weren't playing with the same confidence that these kids played with last summer, and that they played with before we started playing our season. It was good to see them get that bounce back in their step, and I think that showed on the offensive end.

"I think we could have been a little bit more intense defensively, but they shot the ball well, and they shouldn't have had that many open shots, and that part we'll talk about, but it was a night where that wasn't the issue, either, and we'll play a lot of people where we can't let those open shots happen. The whole key in coming up here was the kids coming up and playing hard and having fun, and that's what I saw on the floor tonight."

All nine players that played scored, led by Nick Barrie with 16 points. Kyle Kerfoot netted 11 points, Jake Posey and Jack Hiler both had 10, Travis Gordon, eight, Jordan Cisna, six, Zane Bundy and Chris Maholick, five, and Ricardo DeLaCruz, two.

Baker 73

Tigers 58

The Tigers faced the host Baker Bulldogs in the final game of the Baker Holiday Tourney Saturday night, losing to the defending Oregon State 4A Champions, 73-58.

The Tigers enjoyed a couple leads in the first quarter before Baker scored the final five points of the quarter to lead, 17-14, heading into the second period.

After Baker pushed their lead to 19-14 early in the second, the Tigers went on a 15-3 run to go up 29-22 with two minutes left in the half. The Bulldogs whittled the lead down to 29-27 at the half.

Baker outscored the Tigers 20-12 in the third quarter to go up 47-41, and exploded for 26 points in the final quarter to pull away for a 73-58 win.

"I think they shot pretty well, and eventually they took us out of our zone," said Coach Kerfoot. "We switched zones -- that worked for a while -- and then they figured that one out, too.

"I think they were a little quicker in that second half and got to the basket on us a little bit better, and defensively, it was the same old thing, they shot very well against us... and I've got to give Baker a lot of credit, they're a good ball club."

Nick Barrie led the Tigers in scoring with 15 points, Jake Posey added 13 points, Chris Maholick, 10. Travis Gordon netted eight points, Kyle Kerfoot, six, Jake Hiler, four, and Zane Bundy, two.

The Tigers returned to action Friday night at Jerome against the Jerome Tigers (after the deadline for this holiday issue of the paper). They return to the conference wars at home against Skyview on Jan. 4.