Lady Tigers fall at district a game short of advancing

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers saw their hopes of earning a berth in the State 4A basketball tourney go by the wayside last week, with losses to Bishop Kelly and Emmett.

Bishop Kelly 44

Mtn. Home 28

The Lady Tigers faced Bishop Kelly in the semi-finals of the District III 4A Girls Basketball Tournament, but fell behind early and lost to the Lady Knights 44-2, at Bishop Kelly last Monday night.

Emily Moranda got the Lady Tigers on the scoreboard with a basket about two minutes into the game, but Mountain Home would not score again until Chantell Crane hit a free throw in the closing seconds, as the Lady Tigers found themselves down 17-3 after a quarter.

Mountain Home went on an 8-0 run to start the second quarter to fight back within six, 17-11, midway through the quarter. They could get no closer, and trailed 23-15 at the half.

Mountain Home fell behind by 14 in the third, and got back within 11, at 31-20, heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Tigers could get no closer than 11 in the fourth quarter, as Bishop Kelly sank 11 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter to win it 44-28.

"That second quarter we did a good job of getting back in it, but that first quarter, I don't know if we were scared or too nervous, but the mistakes compounded themselves and we continued to make them, and it's hard to fight back that far," said Lady Tiger coach Brent Keener.

Dakota Barrie led the Lady Tigers in scoring with nine points. The 5'11" freshman also grabbed eight rebounds. Emily Moranda added six points, Francesca Hale had five, Shelby Posey, three, Rebecca Wroten and Hannah Zamora, both had two, and Chantell Crane scored one point.

Emmett 52

Mtn. Home 39

The loss to Bishop Kelly put Mountain Home in the consolation bracket where they faced Emmett Wednesday night. The Lady Huskies had bounced back from their opening round loss to Skyview by beating Columbia. The Lady Huskies outscored Mountain Home 38-12 at the free-throw line and beat the Lady Tigers 52-39.

The Lady Tigers once again started slow, falling behind 8-0 before Hannah Zamora got Mountain Home on the scoreboard with a basket with 6:15 left in the quarter. The Lady Tigers battled back within one, at 10-9, but Emmett shot back out to an 18-11 lead at the end of the quarter.

Brandie Riggs scored in the opening minute of the second period, but Mountain Home would go the rest of the quarter scoreless, as Emmett built their lead to 27-13 at the half.

Mountain Home managed to cut the Emmett lead to seven in the third and trailed 32-24 heading into the fourth.

An 8-2 run to start the fourth brought the Lady Tigers within two, 34-32, with 5:10 left, but Emmett cashed in at the free-throw line, hitting 18 of 24 down the stretch to pull away for the 52-39 win.

"We got off to another slow start, which wasn't great, but we found a way to get back into it, which was nice," said Coach Keener. "We got back within two, and had a chance, but just sent them to the line way too many times.

"Once again we had trouble with (Chelsey) Thayn. She's so quick as a player off the dribble that we just didn't get in very good position to stop her. She went to the line quite a bit herself."

Chelsey Thayn led Emmet with 24 points, including 18 of 26 from the free-throw line. Emmett hit 38 of 52 free throws in the game. Mountain Home connected on 12 of 23.

Francesca Hale led Mountain Home in scoring with 11 points, Emily Moranda added eight. Angie Rios scored seven, Hannah Zamora, five, Shelby Posey, four, Brandie Riggs and Chantell Crane each had two.

The Lady Tigers finish the season 11-12 overall, and went 8-6 in conference, finishing in third place on the season.

Coach Keener, though he would have liked to see the girls make it to state, thought they had a good season.

"Oh, definitely. We made some great accomplishments in the program. To have our freshman and sophomores both playing in their championships, and then for us to get third place in conference, that's awesome."

Keener loses four seniors to graduation, but has two juniors, three sophomores and a freshman coming back next year, plus with the talent on the JV squad and a sophomore team that won the district championship and a freshman team that finished second at district, he sees the future of Lady Tiger basketball as being very bright.

"Yes, it is. I'm really encouraged about it. We've definitely got to get a lot of girls out and playing this summer. Summer basketball now in the high school program is so big, because it's a whole other season.

"We play more games in the summer than we do in the regular season, so the more girls we can get out for that, the better off we'll be."