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Buzzer beater ends Lady Tigers' state title hopes
Despite their never-give-up attitude, the Lady Tigers went out of the State 4A girls basketball tournament in two close losses.
Wood River 48, Mountain Home 43
Despite having home-and-home games on their schedule, the two teams never met during the regular season after snowy weather forced postponement of the two games scheduled in late November. They were never made up.
The two finally met to open the State 4A tourney at Timberline last Thursday and an inability to get shots to drop in the first half put Mountain Home deep in a hole they were unable to overcome, resulting in a 48-43 Wood River win.
Mountain Home could not get any shots to drop for them in the first quarter until the last minute of the quarter. Hailey Belt hit one of two free throws with 32.7 seconds left in the quarter to get the Lady Tigers on the scoreboard. Dakota Barrie hit their first field goal with 10 seconds left to make it 9-3, Wood River, after a quarter.
Mountain Home continued to struggle from the field in the second quarter. Baskets by Jessica Liercke and Keesha Janis-Gibson cut the deficit to 16-9 with 1:57 left in the half, but Wood River got treys from Allie Hesteness and Kaitana Martinez to make it a 22-9 lead for the Lady Wolverines at halftime.
Kaitana Martinez hit another trey to open the third quarter and got another basket to push the lead to 27-9 early in the third quarter, but a 12-4 run the rest of the quarter brought the Lady Tigers back to within 10, 31-21, heading into the fourth.
Wood River pushed its lead to 37-22, with 5:56 left before the Lady Tigers made their charge.
Dakota Barrie's basket with 1:02 left brought the Lady Tigers to within four, 41-37.
Six seconds later, Dakota Barrie could not avoid a collision with Allie Hesteness and the result was Barrie's fifth foul. Hesteness sank the two free throws to push the lead back to six, 43-37.
One of two free throws by Cheyenne Swanson put the Lady Wolverines ahead 44-37 with 43.4 seconds left. Jessica Liercke drained a three with 31 seconds left to cut the deficit to 44-40, but Kaitana Martinez sank two free throws to push it back to 46-40, with 29.6 seconds left.
Jessica Liercke hit one of two free throws with 19.6 seconds left to make it 46-41 and Keesha Janis-Gibson sank two free throws with 16.1 seconds left to cut it to 46-43.
Cheyenne Swan hit one of two free throws to make it 47-43, with 14.6 seconds left and Allie Hesteness added one more with 3.2 seconds left to make it a 48-43 final.
"They played with a lot of heart, and that was good," said Mountain Home girls basketball coach Brent Keener after the game. "We couldn't buy a basket in the first half -- it was like there was a lid on it, but I'm proud of them for the way they played that second half because they never quit, and that was good."
Dakota Barrie and Jessica Liercke led the Lady Tigers' scoring effort with 17 and 15 points respectively. Keesha Janis-Gibson added six points, Hailey Belt three and Courtney Christiansen and Rachel Warila both scored one point.
After shooting just 21 percent (4/19) from the field in the first half, the Lady Tigers hit 44 percent (11/25) in the second half, to put them at 34 percent (15/44) for the game. They connected on three of seven treys (43 percent) and hit 67 percent (10-15) of their free throws.
Wood River shot 38 percent (14/37) from the field, including five of 11 (46 percent) treys, and hit 15 of 23 (65 percent) from the free-throw line.
Moscow 51, Mountain Home 50 (OT)
Bailee Olmstead's 26-foot attempt at the buzzer swished the net as Moscow edged Mountain Home 51-50 in overtime Friday afternoon in consolation play at the state 4A tourney at Timberline.
Mountain Home again had trouble scoring at the basket on the north end of the court at Timberline and fell behind 9-0 before Dakota Barrie scored with 3:50 left in the quarter. It was 13-6, Moscow, after a quarter.
The Lady Tigers fought back in the second quarter and tied it at 19-19 on Dakota Barrie's basket with 50 seconds left. A basket and free throw by Jessica Liercke with 33.9 seconds left made it 22-19, Mountain Home, and Barrie added another free throw to put the Lady Tigers up 23-19 at halftime.
Moscow tied the game at 25-25 before Dakota Barrie hit a three to push Mountain Home back into the lead, 28-25, with 5:22 left in the third.
Moscow took the lead, 29-28, but Barrie hit another trey to make it 31-29, Mountain Home, with under three minutes left in the quarter. An 8-2 run by Moscow to end the quarter put the Lady Bears up 37-33 heading into the final quarter.
Mountain Home regained the lead, 39-38, on a basket by Rachel Warila, with 4:37 left, but Abi Quinett hit back-to-back baskets to put Moscow up 42-39 with 2:06 left in regulation.
Mountain Home's Keesha Janis-Gibson went out of the game with a head injury on the last basket by Quinett.
It stayed at 42-39 until Dakota Barrie cut it to 42-41 with a basket with 33 seconds left. Rachel Warila hit one of two free throws to tie it at 42-42 with 18.7 seconds left.
Kylie Gorton sank two free throws with 7.1 seconds left to put the Lady Bears up 44-42, but Dakota Barrie was fouled with 3.1 second left to tie the game back up at 44-44.
Moscow was unable to get a shot off and the game went into overtime.
In the overtime period, Kylie Gorton scored to put Moscow up 46-44, but a basket by Dakota Barrie tied it at 46-46.
Courtney Christiansen sank two free throws with 1:42 left to put Mountain Home up 48-46, but Abi Quinett sank two to tie the game at 48-48 with 47.8 seconds left.
Moscow missed two free throws with 12.6 seconds left that would have given the Lady Bears the lead.
Dakota Barrie was fouled with 9.6 seconds left and sank both free throws to put the Lady Tigers up, 50-48.
Moscow moved the ball down to Bailee Olmstead, who got a shot off from about 26 feet that swished the net as the buzzer sounded to give the Lady Bears the 51-50 win.
Coach Keener said it was a tough game to lose.
"Honestly, I've never coached a game where I've lost a game like that. I wanted to pressure up on that last possession a little, but obviously not get beat deep. Granted, it was a deep three, but I didn't mean for anyone to be left wide open with no one around, so that's kind of a breakdown there.
"I thought Dakota played awesome -- she was an amazing leader today. There were other girls that I'm not sure where they were in terms of their mental toughness, but we battled, so that's good. We should be proud of that."
Dakota Barrie led the Lady Tigers with a season-high 25 points. Rachel Warila added eight points, Keesha Janis-Gibson and Emilee Schetzle both had five points, Courtney Christiansen scored four and Jessica Liercke three.
Mountain Home shot 38 percent (16/42) from the field, hitting just two of 11 (18 percent) treys. They hit 16 of 25 (64 percent) free throws.
Moscow ended the game on 35 percent (20/57) shooting, and ironically hit just one of 14 (7 percent) three-point attempts -- the game-winner. They shot just 43 percent (10/23) from the foul line.
Mountain Home ended its season 14-1 overall. Coach Keener said he will miss his four seniors that he will lose to graduation.
"Definitely. They've contributed a lot over the last couple of years, and they've been a real good bunch to coach, so I'm really going to miss them."
Coach Keener does believe the future looks good for Mountain Home girls basketball.
"The future is bright. We've got a lot of work to do in the off-season. Some girls have got to improve and develop quite a bit, but I think they're willing to do that.
"We've got quite a few girls signed up for some training this spring, which is good, because it is not just a sport that you play in the winter. You've got to spend a little time in the off season if you're going to be good."
Moscow went on to beat Rigby for the consolation trophy Saturday morning and Wood River played Middleton for the state championship, losing 47-33.