Losses hound Tigers, fall short to Hawks, Knights

The losing skid reached six last week for the Mountain Home Tigers boys basketball team with losses to Skyview and Bishop Kelly.

Hawks 53, Tigers 45

The Mountain Home Tigers battled the Skyview Hawks tough Tuesday night but came up a bit short, 53-45, in SIC 4A boys basketball in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

Tyler Wright's basket gave the Tigers an early 2-0 lead over the defending 4A state champs, but treys by Terrell Rowe and Kyle Dranginis put Skyview up 6-2. The Hawks led,13-8 after a quarter.

Mountain Home went on a 6-0 run to start the second quarter and took the lead, 14-13, on Aaron Hobbs' basket. After Skyview regained the lead, 15-14, Colton Zamora hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 15-15.

A basket by Brock Morris put the Tigers up 17-15. After Matt Rudder tied it back up, Morris scored again to put the Tigers up 19-17, with 3:40 left in the half.

Skyview then went on a 6-0 run to go up 23-19, but Brock Morris nailed a three to cut it to one, 23-22. Skyview managed a 29-27 lead at halftime.

The Hawks took the ball inside to their big men in the third quarter, and they built their lead to 41-33 heading into the fourth quarter.

Skyview built their lead to 47-35 with five minutes left in the game, but back came the Tigers, narrowing the gap to 49-43 with 1:38 left.

The Hawks then extended the floor to run time off the clock. Mountain Home had to foul, but with only two team fouls, had to foul five times before putting them on the line.

Kyle Dranginis missed the front-end of a one-and-one with 38 seconds left and the Tigers got the rebound and a basket by Brock Morris, cutting the Skyview lead to 49-45 with 29 seconds left.

Terrell Rowe, who hit 10 of 12 free throws in the game, sank four in a row the rest of the way to make it a 53-45 final.

Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot, in comments after the game, said he used the analogy of David and Goliath with his players before the game, challenging them to have the courage to "throw the stone.

" I thought we came out and threw it, and I thought we were going to land with it a couple times, but just a few lapses and they found their way out.

"They've got into those lapses, too, they just found their way out a little quicker, and I think some of that is you've got returning All-State players, and that kind of helps you do that.

"Defensively, I thought we executed the game plan very well. A couple times in the first half, we were supposed to close Rowe a little quicker than we did, and he drilled threes, but second half, I don't think he got too many on us.

"I tell you, they're a three-headed monster, with Dranginis, Rowe, and then you've got Clark inside, who's extremely good, and once they finally started going there (inside to Clark), we had to change what we were doing and put a little bit more pressure in there, but overall, I thought the kids did a great job. You know, with good teams, you've got to throw a couple different things at 'em, and I thought we executed that tonight."

Brock Morris and Cody Ramos both had new season highs with 12 points apiece. David Bitrick netted five points, Aaron Hobbs and Deion Brown both added four and J.T. Cristobal, Anthony Castillo, Colton Zamora and Tyler Wright each had two points.

Neither Mountain Home nor Skyview, faired that well on 3-balls.

Mountain Home made just 14 percent (3/22), while the Hawks shot 20 percent (4/20). Both faired better inside, with the Tigers shooting 48 percent (16/33) and Skyview 47 percent (15/32).

Skyview hit 11 of 15 (73 percent) from the free-throw line, while the Tigers shot 57 percent (4/7).

The two teams battled well on the boards, with Skyview narrowly winning the edge, 37-36. Colton Zamora and Tyler Wright led the Tigers on the boards with seven and six, respectively.

Skyview also won the sophomore and JV games.

Knights 45, Tigers 30

The Tigers fell behind early and never really were able to generate much offense Friday night, losing to the Knights 45-30 at Bishop Kelly.

Bishop Kelly shot out to a 9-0 lead over the Tigers before Trevor Woodruff got Mountain Home on the scoreboard with a basket with one minute left in the quarter. The first quarter ended 11-4, Knights.

The Tigers clawed back within two, at 13-11, midway through the second quarter. With the score still 13-11 the Tigers missed two opportunities to tie the game, first at the 3:56 mark, when Deion Brown missed two free throws, and again, with 3:42 left, when Aaron Hobbs couldn't get either of his two free throws to go in.

Bishop Kelly then got a basket by Jake Hardee and a trey by Nick Brady to go up by seven with 2:15 left in the quarter. The Knights led 21-15 at the half.

Anthony Castillo hit his second trey of the game at the 7:11 mark of the third quarter to get the Tigers within five, 23-18, but it would be the closest the Tigers would come the rest of the night as Bishop Kelly went on a 10-2 run the rest of the quarter to take a 33-20 lead into the fourth.

A basket by Trevor Woodruff with 6:02 left got the Tigers within nine, 35-26, but Bishop Kelly closed out the game on a 10-4 run to beat the Tigers 45-30.

"It was a tough night for us," said Tiger assistant coach Tyrone Hutchings after the game. "We've been going through some trials and tribulations and we're trying to get back on track to get back to the level where we're competitive, and it's been hard.

"We've had a lot of things going on and we're just working to get better and keep the guys focused and playing hard."

Anthony Castillo and Trevor Woodruff led the Tigers' scoring with eight points apiece. Colton Zamora and Tyler Wright were next, each with four, and David Bitrick, Cody Ramos and Brock Morris each had two points.

Mountain Home shot just 18 percent (2/11) on three-pointers, hit only 39 percent (11/28) inside the arc and a dismal 29 percent (2/7) from the free-throw line.

Bishop Kelly shot 33 percent (2/6) on long balls, 38 percent (13/34) on twos and 87 percent (13/15) from the charity stripe.

The Tigers were beaten badly on the boards, 34-16. Tyler Wright led Mountain Home with six rebounds.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 1-7 in league play and 2-10 overall.

The Tigers are home against Emmett on Friday night and travel to Middleton on Saturday night.

Bishop Kelly also won the sophomore and JV games.