Lady Tigers end season with consecutive losses

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
The Lady Tigers and Jerome battle for the ball in Thursday's playoff game.

The basketball season for the Mountain Home Lady Tigers ended with the Lady Tigers losing two straight at the 4A State Tournament at Mountain View High School.

Jerome 52

Mtn. Home 36

Mountain Home opened the state 4A tourney against a familiar foe in the Lady Tigers from Jerome. Mountain Home had dropped a 39-28 contest at home to Jerome and lost 41-24 at Jerome.

The third time did not turn out to be the charm, as Mountain Home again lost to Jerome, this time 52-36.

Mountain Home started out well, and grabbed an early 4-2 lead on a basket by Dakota Barrie. After Carrie Thibault canned a trey to put Jerome up 5-4 Shelby Posey scored to put Mountain Home back in front, 6-5, with 4:05 left in the first quarter.

Then the bottom dropped out for Mountain Home, as they failed to score a point for nine and a half minutes, during which time Jerome went on a 24-0 run. After trailing 13-6 after a quarter, Mountain Home finally scored on a basket by Dakota Barrie with 2:37 left in the half. That made it 29-8, Jerome. It was 32-10, Jerome, at the half.

The Lady Tigers from Mountain Home started the third quarter on a 9-0 run to cut the Jerome lead to 32-19, but Aubree Callen then drained a trey to push the lead back to 16. Jerome extended its lead to 48-25 heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home managed to cut the lead down to 14, at 50-36, with 3:50 left in the game, but failed to score again the rest of the way, losing 52-36.

Francesca Hale led Mountain Home in scoring with 19 points, but only three other Mountain Home players scored, and none in double figures. Dakota Barrie and Shelby Posey both added seven points and Charde Huntington scored three to round out the scoring.

Rigby 58

Mtn. Home 49

The Jerome loss put Mountain Home in the consolation bracket against Rigby, which had lost to Middleton 41-23 in its opener.

Rigby pulled away in the first quarter and held the Lady Tigers off for a 58-49 win.

Mountain Home took an 8-7 lead on a trey by Francesca Hale with 3:20 left in the first quarter, but a basket and free throw by Emily Jones gave Rigby the lead back and the Lady Trojans never gave up the lead after that.

Rigby led 21-14 after a quarter.

Mountain Home battled back to within two, 23-21, with 5:30 left in the half, but died not score again in the half, trailing 31-21 at halftime.

Mountain Home was able to come within six in the third, but the Lady Trojans were able to make it 43-34 heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home hit the first five points of the fourth quarter to pull within four, 43-39, with 5:40 left, but Rigby was able to push the lead back to 10 and held the Lady Tigers off for a 58-49 win.

"Defensively I thought we gave up way too much dribble penetration," said Lady Tiger coach Brent Keener.

"We did force a lot of turnovers, but unfortunately for us, we had 26. There was like a look of confusion on some of our girls' faces as they were dribbling the basketball, and at this stage of the season, I wasn't sure where their heads were."

Francesca Hale closed out her high school career at Mountain Home with 28 points against Rigby. Rachel Warila had seven points for the Lady Tigers, Blas Lord scored five, Shelby Posey four, Dakota Barrie three and Charde Huntington two.

Despite going out at state in two straight, Coach Keener thought his girls had a great season.

"These girls have worked extremely hard all season long, and it is a tough way to end the season."

Coach Keener loses five seniors, including leading scorer Francesca Hale, but has a great nucleus coming back.

"Obviously, we're going to have to do some work, losing Francesca -- you know, that's a big loss. She handles the ball so much in our offense that other girls are obviously going to have to work on their ball handling.

"We've got four starters coming back, and then Angie Rios has been out all year, and she'll be starting also, so it really looks bright, and, you know, league-wise, I think quite a few other teams graduate quite a bit. Besides Middleton, who's all juniors except one, everyone else has quite a few seniors."

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