Lady Tigers fall to Middleston, bounce back against Nampa

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers bounced back from a sub-par performance at Middleton with an impressive win over Nampa in girls conference basketball games last week.

Middleton 42

Lady Tigers 27

Middleton came out in a zone press right from the start, and the Lady Tigers struggled getting the ball down the court and fell to the Lady Vikings 42-27 last Thursday night at Middleton.

Middleton shot out to a 16-3 lead after a quarter -- Mountain Home's only points coming on free throws.

Angie Rios hit a trey with 1:50 left in the first half for Mountain Home's first field goal of the game. She followed with another one less than a minute later, but the Lady Tigers trailed, 26-9, at the half.

Emily Moranda scored with 5:12 left in the third quarter, but it would be the only points Mountain Home would score in the quarter as the Lady Vikings stretched their lead to 37-11, after three quarters.

Rebecca Wroten led a fourth quarter comeback with eight points off the bench, but the Lady Viking lead was too much to overcome, as Mountain Home lost 42-27.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger coach Brent Keener was disappointed with the way they started the game.

"They got on us early, and I knew going in the key was we've got to be able to handle the press, and I thought our guards really panicked, freaked out and turned the ball over. They made some shots early, and we couldn't make anything, but a lot of that was outside, too, and we weren't rebounding the basketball. We expected the ball to go in, and it wasn't."

Coach Keener did see some good things, especially in the fourth quarter.

"Definitely, I thought 'Becca (Rebecca Wroten) came off the bench and played really hard. She knocked down some shots, so that made her play even harder, which was nice. I thought Angie (Rios) after the first two minutes really played hard, all game long, but besides that, I didn't see a whole lot of girls playing hard. I thought they let down after getting down."

Rebecca Wroten led the Lady Tigers in scoring with eight points, Angie Rios added five, Chantell Crane scored four, Shelby Posey, three, Brandie Riggs, Blas Lord and Emily Moranda each scored two, and Francesca Hale had one point.

Mtn. Home 51

Nampa 31

Mountain Home Lady Tiger coach Brent Keener was concerned going into Saturday night's game at home against Nampa. Two nights earlier, his Lady Tigers showed the effects of a 16-day layoff and were pretty much blown out early by Middleton. Up next was Nampa, which despite its 2-5 league mark, could easily have been 6-1, as outside of their 47-32 loss to Mountain Home, their largest margin of loss was four points to Bishop Kelly -- that's Bishop Kelly who is unbeaten in league play -- and the Lady Bulldogs had only lost to Middleton by three points.

In the friendly confines of Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, Mountain Home came ready to play, shooting out to a quick 5-0 lead, and never looked back as they downed the dangerous Lady Bulldogs 51-31.

Francesca Hale and Angie Rios both hit treys in the first quarter, as Mountain Home took control early. The Lady Tigers led, 14-10, after a quarter, and through good defensive pressure increased their lead to 26-15 at the half.

Mountain Home maintained its defensive pressure in the second half, and continued to shoot well, extending the lead to 38-21 after three, and not letting up in the fourth, picking up an impressive 51-31 win.

"It was a great win," said Coach Keener in radio comments after the game. "I thought intensity-wise, that was probably tops for the year, for all four quarters. Nampa's been playing extremely well, so to come out and win by 20, that's very good. I'm very pleased!"

Coach Keener thought the Middleton loss, though difficult to go through, was a good learning experience for his ball club.

"I think what we learned from Middleton especially is if the shots aren't going down, we didn't pick it up defensively, and tonight, we picked it up defensively, and we shot the ball well, too, because we attacked the basket, and there were a lot of easy shots because we passed the ball down in the interior pretty well."

Francesca Hale led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 15 points, Angie Rios added 12, both season highs. Chantell Crane netted 10 points, Emily Moranda, seven, Rebecca Wroten, Brandie Riggs and Shelby Posey each scored two, and Blas Lord added one point.

The win improved the Lady Tigers to 7-6 overall, and 5-3 in league play.

Mountain Home played at Kuna last night, and hosts Columbia Friday night. Saturday afternoon the Lady Tigers travel to Jerome for a 2 p.m. game.