Tigers thwart Nampa in overtime, fall to Kuna

The Mountain Home Tigers won one and lost one last week in conference boys basketball action.

Mountain Home 49, Nampa 45 (OT)

The Mountain Home Tigers battled back from 11 points down early in the fourth quarter to tie the game and force overtime, then pulled away for a 49-45 win over the Nampa Bulldogs last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The lead went back and forth in the first quarter, with Mountain Home up 12-11 at the quarter's end. The Tigers led most of the second quarter, but were tied with Nampa at 22-22 at halftime.

The Tigers made just one of 10 shots in the third quarter -- a basket by Brock Morris with 6:53 to go --and found themselves down, 30-24, heading into the fourth quarter.

Nampa's Zach Nolan hit a two and a three in the first minute of the fourth to put the Bulldogs up 35-24 before the Tigers started their comeback, led by Tyler Wright. He scored seven points in the quarter to help tie the game up at 39-39, when Trevor Woodruff sank two free throws with 36 seconds left in regulation play.

In the overtime period, Mountain Home went up 43-39 before Adan Salazar's trey made it 43-42, with 1:55 left.

Anthony Castillo sank two free throws with 1:25 left to make it 45-42, Tigers, but Adan Salazar drained another trey to tie the game at 45-45 with under a minute left.

Tyler Wright scored inside to put the Tigers up 47-45 and Trevor Woodruff got a steal and slam sunk in the closing seconds to make it a 49-45 final.

"That was a good one," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot of the Nampa win. "We had to make a comeback for it, but I was happy with the way we responded and very happy to get the win in the end."

Trevor Woodruff and Tyler Wright both scored in double figures. Woodruff had 13 points and Wright 10. Cody Ramos netted nine points, Anthony Castillo had six, Brock Morris five, J.T. Cristobal three, Aaron Hobbs two and Colton Zamora one.

Mountain Home also won the sophomore and JV games.

Kuna 68, Mountain Home 46

The Kuna Kavemen exploded for 25 points in the third quarter to pull away for a 68-46 conference win over the Tigers Friday night at Kuna.

The game went back and forth in the first quarter, with the score tied at 15-15 after a quarter. The Kavemen were up 27-22 at the half.

Kuna came out hot in the third quarter and outscored the Tigers 25-8 to extend its lead to 52-30 heading to the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home was unable to get any closer than 20 points in the fourth, as they lost to the Kavemen 68-46.

Coach Kerfoot agreed the third-quarter effort by Kuna pretty much did them in.

"Yeah, they came out and that first shot I think they dropped from about 30 feet, that kind of exceeded the extent of our zone, and then they were kind of 'lights out' the rest of that third quarter and shot the heck out of the ball. When they hit a couple of those, that was kind of like right in the heart. We kind of quit playing defense all together then. They were hot and it got kind of frustrating on our end, because we kind of struggled a little bit offensively, and about everything they were throwing up was going in."

Cody Ramos led the Tigers in scoring with a new season-high of 14 points. Anthony Castillo and Deion Brown both added eight points (for Brown a new season high), Trevor Woodruff and Tyler Wright both scored five, David Bitrick had three, Drew Hopkins two and Aaron Hobbs one.

The Tigers dropped to 4-12 on the season, and 3-9 in conference. They close out the regular season schedule this week, hosting Columbia for Senior Night Friday and traveling to Skyview on Saturday night.

"We've got a full week to prepare, but obviously we still have several things we need to work on, and we're nearing the end, and don't have a whole lot of time left."

The sophomores and JV teams also lost to Kuna.