Freshmen split basketball series

The ninth-grade grades boy's basketball team had a tough week, losing two of three games.

The boys lost to Skyview and Columbia and beat Bishop Kelly.

On Dec. 7, the boy's hosted the Skyview Hawks, who started out quickly jumping to an early 16-6 first-quarter lead. The Hawks never looked back, cruising to a 57-20 win.

"I was afraid we might take a step back from our performance last Wednesday against Nampa," said head coach Brian English. "I just didn't think we would step back that far.

"It was the first time our boy's faced a press and they just didn't react to it well. It also showed us that we still have a lot of work to do. When you have more turnover's (27) than points (20) you cannot win."

Tyler Elliott led the team with eight points. Skyler Quinteal had four points and Cameron Hale, Tyler Senger, Doug Long and Skyler Podesek each had two points. Doug Long led the team with eleven rebounds.

On Dec. 9, the boy's traveled to Bishop Kelly to take on the Knights.

In a total opposite of the previous game the team ran the court and played great defense to win the game 49-42. The young Tigers led in every quarter.

"I thought we played a whole lot better then we did on Monday," Coach English said. "At times we ran our offense well and played great man-to-man defense. We still made a lot of mistakes but we did show some improvement."

Tyler Elliott led the young Tigers with a team high 22 points. Doug Long had seven points and led the team with 11 rebounds. Tyler Senger had seven points, Skyler Podesek had five points, Malcolm Freer, Ben Dearing, Skyler Quinteal and Jesse Rodriquez each had two points and Taylor Rector chipped in with one point.

Although they didn't score Cameron Hale, Ruben Guyton, Robie Ranft and Mitchel Rodriquez each helped the team with good defensive play.

On Dec. 12 the boy's hosted the Columbia Wildcats, a game that the Tiger coaches had worried about.

"We scouted Columbia against Skyview earlier and Columbia blew-out Skyview by 20 points," English said. "Since we lost to Skyview by 34, we felt as a staff we had to change what we did. We felt we couldn't play these guys man up and we didn't want to get into a running game with them, so I had Coach DeSpain put in a spread offense and Coach Burton put in a two-three zone."

It worked, as the young Tigers took the Wildcats out of their game. Playing a patient game the young Tigers frustrated the high-flying Wildcats and at the end of the first quarter the 'Cats only led 11 -9. In the second quarter the young Tigers matched the Cats 14-14 in the score and went into the half only trailing 25-23.

In the third quarter the 'Cats started going more inside out on the Tigers and outscored them 12-7 to take 37-30 lead going into the fourth quarter. The 'Cats held off the Tigers in the fourth and came away with the 49-40 victory.

"I am very proud of the boys for the way they played," Coach English said.

"We had two days to change everything we did and they did it. As a coach I can't ask more from a team then what they did. I know some people watching the game only care if we win or lose, but there is more to coaching than that.

"We gave the boys their marching orders for this game and they followed it to the letter. If a couple of breaks go our way maybe we do win the game, but I have always told the boys winning or losing doesn't matter -- what does matter is that we improve."

Skyler Quinteal and Tyler Elliott led the team in scoring with 11 points each. Doug Long added eight hard-fought points in the paint. Malcolm Freer scored five points and led the Tigers in rebounds with five. Cameron Hale and Tyler Senger each had two points and Robie Ranft rounded out the scoring with one point.

The team traveled to Kuna this past Monday and will play Glenns Ferry twice over Christmas break. The Glenns Ferry games will be on Dec. 22 and 29. Game times are at 2 p.m. Both games are in Glenns Ferry.