Tigers dominate in wins over Wood River, Jerome

The Mountain Home Tigers boys basketball team broke into the win column in a big way last week at Wood River and followed that up with a come-from-behind win over Jerome the next night.

Mountain Home 63, Wood River 29

The Mountain Home Tigers led all the way last Tuesday night at Wood River, running to a 63-29 win over the Wolverines.

The Tigers opened up a 16-9 lead after a quarter, and put the game out of reach with 24 points in the second quarter to build their lead to 40-15 at the half. They stretched it to 53-21 after three and won easily, 63-29.

Tiger head basketball coach Tony Kerfoot was pleased with the team's efforts at Wood River.

"I thought we got some things out of the way and hopefully some confidence built up. I thought the kids did a pretty good job at executing things the first half and defensively we started doing some things that got us some good looks. Once we got past a certain point, then everything went offensively. We started shooting the ball pretty well and that was some of the field development that I was wanting to see, so it was a pretty good day for us."

Nine of the 11 Tigers that played scored and five of them had new season highs. Aaron Hobbs led the way with 17 points, Anthony Barboza netted 15 -- both efforts being season bests. Anthony Castillo added eight points, Tyler Wright seven, Brent Sexauer and J.T. Cristobal both scored five, and Tyler Casey, Ricky Castillo and Justin Connolly each scored two points.

The Tigers shot 52 percent (27/52) from the field, including hitting three of 10 long balls. They hit 67 percent (6/9) of their free throws.

Wood River shot 27 percent (12/44) from the field, including just one of 14 treys. They made four of eight (50 percent) shots from the charity stripe.

Mountain Home won the battle of the boards, 33-18, with Aaron Hobbs and Tyler Wright each collecting six rebounds.

Mountain Home 53, Jerome 47

Mountain Home outscored Jerome 16-5 in the fourth quarter to battle back for a 53-47 win Wednesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

Jerome hit three three-pointers in the first quarter as the visiting Tigers shot out to a 19-11 lead after the first eight minutes. Jerome led 27-22 at the half.

Mountain Home cut the margin to one on a couple occasions in the third quarter, but the team found itself down five, 42-37, heading into the fourth quarter.

Jerome stretched it to seven, 44-37, with the first basket of the fourth, but Mountain Home went on a 9-0 run to go up 46-44 with 2:25 left.

A basket and free throw by Spencer Parker with 2:11 left put Jerome back in the lead, 47-46. It would be the last points Jerome would score.

Tyler Wright put Mountain Home up 48-47 with 1:58 left. A basket by Tyler Casey made it 50-47. J.T. Cristobal hit one of two free throws with 17.7 left to make it 51-47 and Anthony Barboza got a steal and layup near the end to make it a 53-47 final.

"That was a very gritty performance by the kids," said a happy Coach Kerfoot after the game. "A lot of adversity tonight and they didn't let it get to them. I thought the kids did an outstanding job there.

"We had two big injuries to two starters, and actually at one time we had three starters out with injuries, but the other kids came in -- James Simon played great defense and got a couple rebounds, and Justin Connolly did an outstanding job.

"Several times we had people out there in positions they'd never played before, and that was just what we had to do to cover ourselves," the coach added. "They showed what their makeup is and what kind of team they're going to be."

Anthony Barboza and Aaron Hobbs led the Tigers in scoring with 14 and 10 points respectively. Brent Sexauer and Tyler Casey had new season highs with eight points apiece, Tyler Wright scored five, J.T. Cristobal four, and James Simon and Justin Connolly had two each.

Mountain Home shot 35 percent (19/54) from the field, including a season best five of 16 treys (31 percent). They connected on 56 percent (10/18) of their free throws.

Jerome shot 32 percent (17/53) from the field, including hitting four of 17 (24 percent) three pointers. They shot 82 percent (9/11) of their free throws.

Mountain Home won the rebound battle, 34-31, led by Aaron Hobbs with nine.

Mountain Home opened conference play Tuesday night at home against Skyview. They travel to Jerome today, Dec. 15, and head to Bishop Kelly on Friday night.