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Tigers fall to Vikings in triple overtime
The Mountain Home Tigers opened the new year with conference losses to Middleton and Nampa last week.
Middleton 78, Mountain Home 75
(3 OT)
The fans certainly got their money's worth Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium as the Tigers and Middleton Vikings battled it out in three overtime periods before the Vikings came out on top, 78-75.
The game went back and forth, with 26 lead changes and nine ties. Mountain Home led 17-15 after a quarter and treys by Aaron Hobbs and Anthony Castillo pushed the margin to 22-15 midway through the second quarter, but the Vikings battled back to lead 25-24 at halftime.
The third quarter had 10 lead changes, with Mountain Home breaking out to a 47-40 lead with less than a minute to go in the quarter, but Middleton hit two treys to whittle the lead down to 47-46 at the quarter's end.
The game stayed close in the fourth, with Mountain Home leading most of the way. Two free throws by Trevor Woodruff with 15 seconds left in regulation put the Tigers up 58-55, but Middleton sophomore Trevor Maughan, who had a sensational night with 28 points, threw up an off-balance three-pointer that went in to tie the game at 58-58, with four seconds left.
Mountain Home called a time-out with three seconds left and attempted a shot at the buzzer that was off the mark, and the game went into overtime.
Trevor Maughan, who hit 12 of 13 free throws on the night, was six-for-six from the line in the first overtime as Middleton built up a 64-61 lead.
Tiger sophomore J.T. Cristobal, who was moved up from the JV squad for Tuesday night's game as Mountain Home was without five players due to injuries, illness and other reasons, hit a trey from the corner with 16 seconds left to tie the game at 64-64.
Middleton called time and tried for a game-winner, but failed, and the game went into the second overtime four-minute period.
Tyler Wright hit one of two free throws early in the second overtime to put Mountain Home up 65-64, with 3:07 left.
Trevor Maughan continued his heroics, making a rare four-point play, when he was fouled making a three-pointer, and added the free throw to put the Vikings up 68-65 with 1:45 left.
Anthony Castillo drained his fourth trey of the night to tie the game at 68-68 with 1:33 left.
Both teams missed opportunities to take the lead and the second overtime period ended with the score 68-68.
Anthony Castillo hit one of two free throws to give the Tigers the lead at 69-68 with 2:23 left.
Ross Waltman hit two free throws to put Middleton back on top with 2:05 left.
Tyler Wright put Mountain Home ahead, 71-70, with a basket with 1:50 left, but two free throws by Trevor Maughan and a basket by Ross Waltman put the Vikings back ahead, 74-71, with 1:14 left.
Cody Ramos scored to bring the Tigers within one, but Trevor Maughan hit a basket and free throw to push the lead to 77-73 with 25 seconds left.
Cody Ramos added another basket to cut it to 77-75 with 16 seconds left. Chance Bennett then hit one of two free throws with eight seconds left to push the lead to 78-75.
A three-point attempt to tie fell short, and the clock ran out on a 78-75 Middleton win.
Despite the loss, Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot saw some positives from his team.
"The kids played with a lot of heart, and I think you've got to be excited about the way we played, and we're far ahead of where I expected us to be at this time.
"That's the most heart I've seen them play with. I think we learned a lot of lessons before Christmas. Our practices (since then) showed we forgot them, but our practices have also not been very competitive since we came back. It got competitive tonight, however, and the heart showed up and I thought we looked great.
"Yeah, we can fine-tune a few things here and there, but the heart is a big one, and I thought we just played with a ton of it."
Anthony Castillo, Colton Zamora and Tyler Wright each had new season highs for the Tigers. Castillo and Zamora both scored 13 points, Wright added 12. Aaron Hobbs netted a season-high nine points, Cody Ramos and Trevor Woodruff both added eight, Brock Morris, seven, and J.T. Cristobal, moved up from the JV squad, had five points.
Both teams shot well from the floor. Mountain Home shot 42 percent (8/19) on three-pointers, Middleton, 44 percent (8/18).
The Tigers shot 47 percent (21/45) inside the arc while Middleton shot 40 percent (17/42). Their downfall was the free-throw line, where they managed just 41 percent (9/22), while Middleton was 20 for 30 for 67 percent.
The Tigers won the battle of the boards, claiming 39 rebounds to Middleton's 32. Tyler Wright led the way with nine, Trevor Woodruff had seven. Middleton won the JV game, 43-32, and Mountain Home took the sophomore game, 47-39.
Nampa 55, Mountain Home 36
Possibly feeling the effects of their extra 12 minutes on Tuesday night, the Tigers fell behind Nampa early Friday night and were never able to get over the hump, losing 55-36 to the Bulldogs at Nampa.
Nampa shot out to a 5-0 lead before Brock Morris hit a trey to put the Tigers on the board with 5:48 left to go in the quarter, cutting the Nampa lead to 5-3. It would be the only one of 11 shots that went in for Mountain Home in the quarter, as the Bulldogs upped their lead to 12-3 after a quarter.
The Tigers warmed up in the second quarter, and battled back from a 12-point deficit to come within three, 20-17, before Nampa scored at the buzzer to take a 22-17 lead into the locker room at halftime.
A basket by Trevor Woodruff a minute into the third quarter, brought the Tigers back within three, 22-19, but the Bulldogs came out on fire in the third, hitting seven of eight shots, including three-for-three on three-pointers, to increase their lead to 37-25 after three quarters.
The Tigers managed to cut the deficit to 11 on a couple occasions in the fourth, but could come no closer, losing 55-36.
"We weren't very well focused, and I don't know what the deal was tonight," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "I thought we were totally outhustled from the first tip on. I thought early on, we settled for outside jump shots, we didn't have good ball movement, we didn't work it in, and that's what we've been doing well. Those were things we didn't come out and do tonight. I know how we play when we don't do those things, and that was pretty much it. It was a very lackluster performance. I was really disappointed after the way we played Tuesday night."
Anthony Castillo and Trevor Woodruff led the Tigers in scoring with eight points apiece. Brock Morris had seven points, Cody Ramos hit six, Colton Zamora added three and Aaron Hobbs and Tyler Wright both netted two points.
Mountain Home shot just 28 percent (5/18) on three-pointers, a chilly 30 percent (6/20) on two-pointers, and just 43 percent (9/21) from the charity stripe.
Nampa hit 46 percent (6/13) on long balls, 54 percent (13/24) inside the arc, and a sizzling 92 percent (11/12) from the free-throw line. The Bulldogs also outrebounded the Tigers 32-15. Trevor Woodruff led Mountain Home with five boards.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 2-6 on the season and 1-3 in conference play. The Tigers host Kuna on Thursday night and travel to Columbia Saturday night.
"Hopefully we'll get back with a little bit more intensity, a little bit more hustle," said Coach Kerfoot. "Maybe playing real bad like we did tonight, we'll figure out what we have to do to be good!"
The Mountain Home sophomores dropped a close 40-39 contest at Nampa, while the JV squad beat Nampa's JV 42-37.