Tigers struggle in 2nd, fall to Grizzlies in season debut

After a torrid shooting effort in the first half Saturday night at Rocky Mountain High School, the Mountain Home Tigers cooled off in the second half and watched the game get away from them, dropping their season-opening boys basketball game 59-49 to the Grizzlies.

Mountain Home started strong and trailed only 10-8 after a quarter. Rocky Mountain hit the first basket of the second quarter to go up 12-8, but the Tigers then went on a 14-0 run before Rocky Mountain would score again.

On 76 percent shooting (13/17, including 2/2 on treys), the Tigers built up a 28-17 lead at halftime that, despite 18 first half turnovers.

The Tigers cooled off in the second half and still led, 39-35, after three quarters, but Rocky Mountain grabbed the lead back, 47-46, on a basket by Jim Bagley with 3:33 left in the game.

The Grizzlies pushed it to 49-46 before a basket by Aaron Hobbs brought Mountain Home back within one, 49-48, with 2:21 left. From there, Rocky Mountain outscored the Tigers 10-1 for the 59-49 win.

Tiger head basketball coach Tony Kerfoot saw lots of positives despite the loss.

"I thought the first half we looked pretty good," the coach said. "The second half, I don't know that we're ready to play four quarters yet. I think we got a little tentative defensively, because we had some foul trouble, and we got a few guys in there that kind of changed the way we played a little bit defensively.

"Offensively, I didn't think we handled their pressure real well, but we did get good shots," he added. "The first half, even though they were pressuring us, we were breaking it down and getting some pretty good shots, and we didn't get too many of those in the second half.

"We've got a few things we need to improve on, but I thought they came out, going on the road and playing a 5A school, we actually came out and played very well the first half, and the second half, we had some breakdowns. I knew we weren't well rounded yet. We haven't had a chance to cover everything real well."

Aaron Hobbs led the Tigers with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Anthony Castillo netted 11 points, Anthony Barboza added eight, Tyler Casey six, and Brent Sexauer, Ricky Castillo and Tyler Wright each had two points.

The Tigers, who cooled off to just 25 percent (6/24, including 1/5 on three-pointers) in the second half, finished the game shooting 46 percent (19/41, including 3/8 on treys). They hit 62 percent (8/13) from the free-throw line.

Rocky Mountain, which shot just 26 percent (7/27) from the field first in the half, ended up shooting 38 percent (23/61) from the field, and only 45 percent (9/20) from the charity stripe.

Mountain Home had a narrow 32-29 edge in rebounds, led by Aaron Hobbs with ten. Mountain Home turned the ball over 25 times in the game. Rocky Mountain had 12 turnovers.

The Tigers were back in action Tuesday night at home against Mountain View. They travel to Wood River next Tuesday and are home against Jerome on Dec. 8.