Mustangs battle back to thwart Lady Tigers

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers had a good first half against a cold-shooting Eagle team Saturday night, but when the Lady Mustangs' shots began to fall in the second half, Eagle battled back to win 60-47 in a non-conference game in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Mountain Home took advantage of Eagle's frigid 13 percent (2/15) field goal shooting in the first quarter to shoot out to a 7-0 lead and 11-4 lead after a quarter.

The Lady Tigers built up a 19-9 lead with 3:23 left in the half before an 8-0 run by Eagle cut the Mountain Home lead to 19-17. Mountain Home took a 20-17 into the locker room at halftime.

Eagle shot a sizzling 64 percent (9/14) from the field in the third quarter, to Mountain Home's 30 percent (3/10), and used Mountain Home turnovers to build up a 37-24 lead before the Lady Tigers whittled it to 42-35 after three.

A 6-0 run by Mountain Home to start the fourth quarter brought the Lady Tigers back within one, 42-41, and again at 44-43 with 6:34 left in the ball game.

Eagle then went on a 7-0 run to build their to 51-43 with 3:43 left. The closest Mountain Home got after that was 51-45 with 3:23 left. The Lady Mustangs outscored Mountain Home 9-2 the rest of the way for the win.

"We came out well in the first quarter, then the girls started getting tired," said Lady Tiger assistant coach Stehvn Tesar after the game.

"You could tell it was the first game for both teams," the coach said. "There were a lot of turnovers, a lot of sloppy mistakes, but the girls did battle and that's all we ask for, to have that heart.

"There are some things we need to iron out for sure, but this is the first game tune-up, and that's what we use these 5A games for generally -- to get ready for conference," he added.

Keesha Janis-Gibson led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 20 points.

Marissa Streeter and Selena Foster both added five points, Courtney Christiansen, Hailey Belt and Teresa Fredell each had four, Madi Karst three and Emilee Schetzle put in two points.

Mountain Home shot just 18 percent (2/11) on three-point shots, and hit just 29 percent (12/41) inside the arc, but shot 71 percent (17/24) from the free-throw line.

Eagle hit 21 percent (3/14) of their treys, 43 percent (17/40) of their two-pointers and 65 percent (17/26) from the charity stripe.

Mountain Home won the battle of the boards against the taller Eagle team, 35-31, led by Keesha Janis-Gibson with 11.

The Lady Tigers played at Timberline last night (Tuesday), and open Southern Idaho Conference play this weekend, hosting Columbia on Friday night, and traveling to Nampa on Saturday night.