Tigers JV loses District III 4-A semi-final to Middleston 66-54

The Mountain Home Tigers lost to top-seeded Middleton 66-54 in the semi-finals of the District III 4A JV Boys Basketball Tournament at Emmett on Feb. 23.

The Tigers fell behind 17-5 after a quarter and trailed 35-16 at the half. It was 50-35, Middleton, after three quarters.

Mountain Home managed to get within seven points at one time, but could get no closer, as the Vikings won 66-54.

"I thought we played pretty well," said Tiger JV Coach Rick Suber. "The one guard they had (Mortensen) went off for 32 (points). We probably could have done a better job on him, but we met a lot of goals we had set for the game, especially offense. We just needed to be better defensively, especially on the one player."

Damian Soliz led the Tigers with 15 points. Anthony Castillo added nine, Cody Ramos had eight, Alex Kellogg scored seven, Brock Morris six, John Foale four, James Simon three and Aaron Hobbs had two.

Coach Suber had three players join the team in the second semester. He agreed that had they been on the team the full season, the team could have meshed better and maybe been unbeatable by the end of the season.

"But in retrospect, if you look at it, we developed some players that probably wouldn't have had an opportunity, so there is a silver lining there that we'll have more players ready for next season."

Coach Suber also thinks the Mountain Home Tiger basketball future looks bright for the next few years.

"You've got the sophomores winning the (district) championship, a lot of talent in the younger grades, and we're really excited about that!"

The JV Tigers finished 12-10 overall.