Mountain Home beats Middleton as it heads to district

The Mountain Home Tigers returned to the win column Thursday night, two nights after dropping a close game at Emmett.

Emmett 51

Tigers 45

In a game that had six ties and 12 lead changes, the Mountain Home Tigers boys basketball team came up on the short end of a 51-45 contest at Emmett last Tuesday night.

Mountain Home shot out to a 4-0 lead, and led 8-2 before a 7-0 run by the Huskies gave Emmett their first lead, 9-8. Nick Barrie hit free throws to put the Tigers up, 10-9, with 1:03 left but Emmett scored the final five points of the quarter to go up, 14-10.

Alex Campbell scored twice to tie the game at 14-14, before Emmett regained the lead. Jake Posey scored to tie the game at 17-17, but the Huskies took a 19-17 lead into the locker room at halftime.

A 9-0 run by Mountain Home to start the third quarter put Mountain Home up 26-21 but a 14-6 run by the Huskies the rest of the quarter gave Emmett a 35-32 lead heading into the fourth.

Emmett pushed the lead to 40-32 early in the fourth quarter. The Tigers fought back within three, 48-45, with 1:04 left, but Emmett hit three of four from the line to seal the win, 51-45.

"Emmett's lost one game in league, and they're a pretty good ball club," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "I thought we came over here and played extremely well on the road. I thought to keep them to 51 points -- our goal was to keep them under 55 -- but our goal was to score 55, and we've got to figure out where we can get a few more points on the board."

Kyle Kerfoot and Alex Campbell led the Tigers offensively with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Nick Barrie added nine points, Jake Posey, six, Danny Snelgrow, three, and Chris Maholick, two.

Mtn. Home 53

Middleton 44

The Tigers celebrated Senior Night with a 53-44 conference win over the Middleton Vikings last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers came out fired up by the Senior Night festivities, and shot out to a 13-3 lead, and led, 16-9, after a quarter.

Mountain Home stretched their lead to 14 points in the second period, and led, 31-17, at the half.

A trey by Kyle Kerfoot two minutes into the third quarter pushed the lead up to 20, 39-19. Mountain Home took a 44-30 lead into the final quarter.

Baskets by Travis Gordon, Alex Campbell and Nick Barrie to start the fourth pushed the lead back up to 20, 50-30, and the Tigers coasted on in for a 53-44 win.

"I tell you what, the kids stepped up and they played absolutely great defense and we got into a good flow offensively, too!" said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "Things I've been preaching all year long I saw happening tonight, and it wasn't one or two or three guys it was the whole group. It was Senior Night for our seniors out there and they put a little extra emotion into it tonight, and I think they saw what happens when they can do that."

Nick Barrie and Jake Posey led the Tigers with 13 points apiece, Posey had eight rebounds. Kyle Kerfoot contributed nine points, Zane Bundy, Jordan Cisna and Alex Campbell each scored four, Travis Gordon, Jake Hiler and Chris Maholick all had two points.

The win improved the Tigers to 6-7 in league play and 7-12 overall.

The Tigers closed out their regular season schedule last night at Columbia.

The district tournament starts Saturday.