Tigers defeat Emmett, lose tournament game to Kuna

The Mountain Home Tigers closed out their regular season schedule with a win over Emmett, then opened District III 4A tourney play with a loss to Kuna.

Kuna 73

Tigers 50

The Tigers opened district tourney play as the number four seed, hosting fifth-seeded Kuna Saturday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Mountain Home had beaten the Kavemen twice during the regular season, but it was not to be Saturday night, as Andy Murphy hit seven three-pointers and scored 30 points to lead the Kavemen to a 73-50 victory.

Murphy's first trey broke a 7-7 tie with 4:20 left to go in the first quarter. He hit another in the quarter, as did Kyle Andrus, and the Kavemen took a 23-14 lead into the second quarter.

The Tigers tried to stay close in the second, but could get no closer than nine, and Murphy hit two more treys in that quarter to help Kuna to a 40-27 at halftime.

The Kavemen extended their lead to 28 points midway through the third quarter and led 62-37 heading into the fourth.

Danny Snelgrow's trey with 5:33 left in the game cut the Kuna lead to 20, at 65-45, but the Tigers could get no closer, losing 73-50.

"I didn't think we played very well, and I was impressed with Kuna -- by far and away that team has been hidden. We hadn't seen that team play either time we played them," said Coach Kerfoot.

"I thought that first quarter we started losing our composure and we started panicking when we were down six, and next thing, we're down 14, and then it got worse than that.

"There were times when we kind of got it back, but then they would do something and break us down defensively and get some easy buckets."

Kyle Kerfoot and Alex Campbell both scored 11 points to lead Mountain Home in scoring. D.J. Elliott added eight points, Danny Snelgrow and Trevor Woodruff both scored five, Deion Brown added four and David Bitrick and Chris Maholick both had three points.

The Tigers put up 29 three-point shots, and hit on just six of them (21 percent), shot 43 percent (12/28) inside the arc and hit 62 percent (8/13) of their free throws.

Kuna shot a torrid 75 percent (9/12) on treys, 42 percent (13/31) on two-pointers and hit 63 percent (20/32) from the free-throw line.

Kuna won the battle of the boards, 26-25. Alex Campbell led the Tigers with 10 rebounds.

The loss put the Tigers in the consolation bracket, where they battled Nampa last night in Mountain Home, needing to win three straight games to make it to state.

"There's another path (to state)," Kerfoot said. "I didn't want it, but it's probably the easier path to get to state, and we get to play another game here (in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium). Hopefully, it'll end our home season on a good note, and get some momentum to come back through the back side and see if we can make a run at the state tournament."

Mountain Home would need to win three straight games (Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) to capture third place and the final state 4A berth. The State 4A Boys Basketball Tournament is March 5-7 at Borah High School in Boise. Mountain Home had closed out its regular season with an easy victory over Emmett earlier in the week.

Tigers 74

Emmett 58

Mountain Home exploded for 26 points in the fourth quarter to pull away for a 74-58 conference win over Emmett to close out the regular season last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Baskets by Alex Campbell and Kyle Kerfoot put the Tigers up 4-0 in the first 30 seconds of the game, but Emmett responded with a 9-0 run that put the Huskies up 9-4 before Dallin Dean's basket stopped the run.

The Tigers trailed 19-15 after a quarter.

Emmett upped its lead to 11, at 28-17, with 5:20 left in the first half, but the Tigers battled back with the long ball, hitting four treys the rest of the quarter to come within five, 34-29, at the half.

Kyle Kerfoot hit a trey to start the third quarter -- his third of the game -- as the Tigers came within two. After Adam Guerra scored to make it 36-32, Huskies, Mountain Home went on a 13-0 run to go up 45-36, but Emmett battled back within one, 48-47, after three quarters.

The Tigers extended their lead to 54-48 with 5:30 left, but two baskets by Cory Holm brought the Huskies back within two, 54-52, with 5:00 left.

Mountain Home then went on a 10-0 run to make it 64-52, with 1:23 left. The Tigers, who only hit one of six free throws in the first three quarters, cashed in on nine of ten in the fourth quarter as they pulled away for the win.

"I was very impressed with Emmett," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "That number 20 (Adam Guerra), he had a whale of a game. I knew (Cory) Holm could do that, and they're quick, they gave us quickness matchups all over the place.

"Some guys didn't get rotations tonight, because we were trying to match up to their quickness. They kind of had a spread out motion, dribble-drive offense that we had a hard time with, but hats off to the kids, I thought they played hard. We made the adjustments we needed to and made the plays we needed to."

Kyle Kerfoot led the Tigers in scoring with a season-high 21 points, which included four treys. Alex Campbell added 18 points, D.J. Elliott had 10, Danny Snelgrow eight, Dallin Dean and Trevor Woodruff both had four, Chris Maholick scored three,and David Bitrick, Logan Monasterio and Deion Brown each scored two points.

The Tigers had their best shooting night of the season, shooting 57 percent (8/14) on long balls, and 56 percent (20/36) inside the arc. They shot 63 percent (10/16) from the free-throw line.

Emmett hit just 33 percent (4/12) of their treys, but hit 54 percent (21/39) of their twos. They hit 67 percent (4/6) from the foul line.