Tigers beat Skyview, loses to Bishop Kelly

The Mountain Home Junior High School ninth-grade Tigers split their two games this past week, beating Skyview and losing to Bishop Kelly.

In the Skyview game the team jump out early using a fast break offense to grab a 13-8 lead after the first quarter.

In the second quarter the Hawks came back, outscoring the Tigers 13-6 to take a 21-19 lead into the locker room at halftime.

In the third quarter the Tigers settled down and played solid man-to-man defense to retake the lead 31-26 at the end of three quarters.

In the fourth quarter both teams fought hard but the young Tigers held on for the 43-39 victory.

Sam Hem led all scorers with 16 points. Jared Day had 9 points. Alex Rodriquez and Chase Hopkins each had 4 points and Rodriquez led the team with 9 rebounds. Blaine Jewett and Derek Doerr each had 3 points, and Jake Hennessey and Tony McKenzie rounded out the scoring, netting 2 points each.

"We played well for three quarters," said Tiger coach Brian English. "We still have to learn when to run and when to slow down but it's a growing process and the boys are working hard in practice trying to get better."

As well as the boy's played Monday, Wednesday at Bishop Kelly was "an ugly game to watch," English admitted.

The team struggled on defense early and couldn't seem to stop the inside game of the Knights as Bishop Kelly jumped out to a 17-13 halftime lead.

The Tigers tried to change things up in the third quarter by pressing and switching from their man defense to a zone but the Knights built on their lead to go up 34-19 after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, although the Tigers "finally got their act together and really pushed their way back into the game," cutting the Knights lead down to four, but that was as close as the boys would get as they fell 39-33.

Tyler Knauth and Derek Doerr led the team with 6 points each. Alex Rodriquez had 5 points and led the team with 10 rebounds. Sam Hem also had 5 points. Tony McKenzie had 4 points, Jake Hennessey had 3 points, and Chase Hopkins and Jared Day each had 2 points.

"This loss was my fault," English said. "I did not have the team ready to play properly.

"We have worked very hard on playing man-to-man defense but we spent no time playing zone. When we needed to change defenses we didn't know what to do and that falls on me.

"We also are still struggling to learn how to run an offense but we will keep on working to get better. The boys tried hard to win.

"I don't care about wins and losses. I care about them becoming better basketball players."

The team hosts Columbia on Monday and travels to Kuna on Wednesday.