Tigers basketball loses to Middleton and Jerome

The Mountain Home Tigers head into the new year still looking for their first win of the season, dropping games to Jerome and Middleton last week.

Jerome 74

Mtn. Home 56

The Jerome Tigers pulled away in the last several minutes to down the Mountain Home Tigers 74-56 last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

After D.J. Elliott's trey tied the game at 5-5 with 5:35 left in the first quarter, the Jerome Tigers went on a 22-5 run to build up a 27-10 lead.

Mountain Home managed to narrow the gap to 28-18 after a quarter.

Mountain Home could come no closer than eight in the second quarter, and went into the locker room at halftime down 41-31.

Mountain Home managed to whittle the Jerome lead down to 46-40 with 5:10 left in the third quarter, but then Jerome went on a 10-3 run the rest of the quarter to up the lead to 56-43 after three.

Mountain Home could get no closer than nine in the fourth quarter, the last time at 65-56, with 2:33 left. They would go scoreless the rest of the game as Jerome extended their lead to a 74-56 final.

"I was more happy with the way we played in the second half," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "There's still some areas we need to clean up, but the effort was there tonight. I thought we were hustling and scrapping."

Alex Campbell led the Tigers in scoring with 17 points. D.J. Elliott added 13 points, 11 of those coming in the first half. Kyle Kerfoot scored nine points, Chris Maholick hit for eight, Trevor Woodruff had seven and Dallin Dean picked up two points.

Mountain Home shot 34 percent (23/67) from the field for the game, including 5/21 (24 percent long balls, and were five of 10 from the line for 50 percent.

Jerome, which shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, ended the night at 44 percent (30/68). They only shot 18 percent (3/17) beyond the arc, and hit only 48 percent (11/23) from the free-throw line.

Middleton 60

Tigers 54

The Tigers opened their conference season at Middleton Friday night and came close, but ended up losing to the Vikings 60-54.

The lead went back and forth all night. Mountain Home had six leads in the first quarter, but when Ross Waltman scored with two seconds left in the period the Tigers trailed Middleton, 14-13.

Trevor Woodruff's basket early in the second quarter gave the Tigers the lead back before Middleton tied the game at 15-15. Alex Campbell got a basket and free throw to put the Tigers up 18-15 with 6:56 left in the half.

Two straight baskets by Middleton put the Vikings ahead 19-18, but a three-pointer by Kyle Kerfoot put the Tigers up 21-19 with 5:54 left in the half.

After Ross Waltman's basket tied the game at 21-21, Mountain Home got two baskets from Kyle Kerfoot and a basket and free throw from Danny Snelgrow to go up 28-21 with less than four minutes left in the half.

A 13-2 run by Middleton the rest of the way put the Vikings up at halftime, 34-30.

Kyle Kerfoot hit a trey to bring the Tigers back within one, 38-37, and Alex Campbell drained one with 1:34 left to tie the game at 40-40, but a basket and free throw by Ross Waltman made it 43-40, Middleton, heading into the final quarter.

Middleton upped their lead to five before the Tigers came back to cut it to one, 45-44, with five minutes left. The Vikings upped their lead to six, 51-45, before baskets by Alex Campbell and Trevor Woodruff brought the Tigers back within three, 51-48, with 2:04 left.

That would be the closest the Tigers would get as the Vikings cashed in with six of nine from the free-throw line down the stretch to claim a 60-54 conference win over the Tigers.

"I knew it would be a battle and a close game," said Coach Kerfoot in radio comments after the game. "I was kind of disappointed. I didn't think we reacted too well in situations and maybe a lot of mental miscues.

"I thought we closed the first half not so smart, and down the stretch we didn't play very well, so those are obviously some things that we're going to have to work on.

"I knew it was a going to be a close game, but I think some of our kids were expecting a blowout -- us blowing them out. I think they thought they were better and I don't know how many losses we're going to have to take before they realize that they're going to have to play every night out."

Alex Campbell, D.J. Elliott and Kyle Kerfoot all scored in double figures. Campbell led the way with 13, Elliott added 12 and Kerfoot hit for 10. Trevor Woodruff hit six points, Chris Maholick and Danny Snelgrow both scored five, Deion Brown two and Dallin Dean one.

The Tigers shot 39 percent (22/57) from the field, and hit only four of 20 (20 percent) on three pointers. They hit just 55 percent (6/11) from the free-throw line.

Middleton shot 40 percent (22/55) from the field, but were 0/7 in long balls. They shot 67 percent (16/24) from the foul line.

Middleton also won the battle of the boards 41-24. Alex Campbell led Mountain Home with eight rebounds.

The loss dropped the Tigrs to 0-5 on the season and 0-1 in conference play. They return to action Jan. 2 at home against Wood River.