Jerome's Justin Stokes overwhelms Tigers as Mountain Home boys fall 68-62 at home

Justin Stokes scorched the nets with 29 points to lead the Jerome Tigers past Mountain Home, 68-62, last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

Mountain Home shot out to a 4-0 lead, but Jerome battled back to tie it at 4-4. Mountain Home shot back into the lead, and led 14-11 after eight minutes of play.

Mountain Home's biggest lead of the night was 21-15, with 4:08 left in the first half. An 8-0 run by Jerome gave the visiting Tigers a 23-21 lead with 2:13 left in the half. Jake Posey scored to tie the game at 23-23, but Jerome took a 27-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.

A basket by Travis Gordon and two by Jake Posey to start the third quarter put the home Tigers up, 30-27, with 5:35 left in the quarter, but Logan Parker canned a trey to tie the game at 30-30.

Nick Barrie answered with a trey to put Mountain Home back in the lead, but Logan Parker nailed another one to tie it back up at 33-33.

After a basket by Jake Posey gave the Tigers the lead back, Justin Stokes hit a three to put Jerome back up, 36-35.

Baskets by Chris Maholick and Jake Posey gave Mountain Home a 39-36 lead with 2:56 left in the quarter, but Justin Stokes scored twice and Logan Parker hit another trey at the buzzer to put Jerome up, 45-41, heading into the fourth quarter.

Jerome went up by eight points early in the fourth, but while Mountain Home canned five treys in the quarter -- three by Nick Barrie -- the team could get no closer than three, at 65-62. Jerome then hit three of four free throws in the final seconds to pull away for a 68-62 win.

"It was a battle," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "They've got some great athletes and they put up 68 points on us. I thought we were getting better defensively -- that makes me kind of wonder a little bit -- but they're a good ball club.

"They came out and played us a very quick-paced game, and that's not our game, and I think we struggled with that a little bit in the first half, and a lot of turnovers due to that. I think in the second half we kind of executed and stayed within ourselves a little better and we got back into it, and then they started warming up -- that Parker kid hit three 3's in the third quarter -- and that kind of hurt us, but our kids stepped up and they played with them and kept after them, and I can't fault them for that. We got up in the 60s, too."

Nick Barrie led the Tigers with 21 points, a new season and career-high, including five three-pointers. Jake Posey scored 17 points, Alex Campbell added nine, and had nine boards, Travis Gordon scored six points, Danny Snelgrow, three, Kyle Kerfoot, Jordan Cisna and Chris Maholick each had two points.

Last Friday night's scheduled game with Kuna was rescheduled for Monday after weather forced closure of school in Mountain Home. The Tigers travel to Skyview Thursday night and host Bishop Kelly on Friday night.