Lady Tigers go one-for-three in conference action

It is natural to play better at on your home court, but early in the basketball season it appears the Mountain Home Lady Tigers are having a hard time getting shots to drop on the road.

The result is a 1-2 record last week for the Lady Tigers, who won at home and dropped two road games.

Timberline 40

Mountain Home 22

Cold shooting and turnovers did the Lady Tigers in last Tuesday night at Timberline as Mountain Home dropped a 40-22 non-conference game to Timberline.

Mountain Home could manage just a free throw in the first quarter, as all 11 of their field goal attempts failed to connect and they trailed 9-1 after a quarter.

The Lady Tigers made four of nine field goal attempts in the second quarter, and managed to come within three points on a couple of occasions. They trailed, 14-9, at the half.

Timberline hit a sizzling 64 percent (7/11) from the field in the third quarter, as they built up a 28-10 lead before the Lady Tigers came back to make it 30-17, Timberline, after three.

A basket and a free throw by Keesha Janis-Gibson with 5:10 left in the game brought Mountain Home within eight, 30-22, but it would be the last points they would score in the game, as they missed the final five shots they attempted, and turned the ball over six times the rest of the way. Timberline scored the final 10 points of the game for a 40-22 win.

"That was just disgusting," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Brent Keener in radio comments after the game. "I don't even know what to say about it. The shooting was just horrendous. And there were a lot of easy shots. (We) couldn't finish easy shots. That was not pretty.

"I thought the last game (Eagle), we relied heavily on Keesha (Janis-Gibson) to score. She didn't score tonight and no one else picked up the slack at all, so we're going to have to find some girls who can score the basketball."

Marissa Streeter led the Lady Tigers in scoring with five points. Teresa Fredell and Keesha Janis-Gibson both had four, Hailey Belt added three, and Courtney Christiansen, Selena Foster and Tessa Pachner each scored two points.

Mountain Home missed all nine three-point attempts in the game, and hit just 24 percent (8/33) of their two-point shots, and a dismal 46 percent (6/13) from the free-throw line.

Timberline hit just one of 11 (9 percent) treys, but shot 43 percent (15/35) inside the arc. They also hit 70 percent (7/10) of their free throws.

Mountain Home did control the boards, outrebounding Timberline 30-19, with Keesha Janis-Gibson leading the way with nine boards.

The Lady Tigers committed 26 turnovers to Timberline's 19.

Mountain Home 57

Columbia 32

Mountain Home opened conference play at home Friday night and led from start to finish for a 57-32 win over Columbia.

The Lady Tigers shot out to an 11-0 lead and never looked back in picking up the win in their conference opener.

The closest Columbia got was 11-6, with less than a minute to go in the first quarter, but Courtney Christiansen hit a trey with 25 seconds left to give Mountain Home a 14-6 lead after a quarter.

A 21-point third quarter for Mountain Home put the game out of reach, as the Lady Tigers took a 48-26 lead into the final quarter.

Coach Keener was pleased with the effort from his Lady Tigers in the win.

"Yes, definitely. Especially in the second half, I thought some girls really picked it up. I thought Emilee Schetzle played a great second half, and I think Selena (Foster) played a great second half, and Keesha (Janis-Gibson) did an awesome job of sharing the basketball, too. She saw the whole floor tonight."

Keesha Janis-Gibson led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 12 points.

Courtney Christiansen netted nine points, Marissa Streeter added eight, Hailey Belt and Selena Foster both scored six, Alexis Berry, five, Madi Karst and Emilee Schetzle each had four, Emma Wenger two and Teresa Fredell one.

Mountain Home had a much better night shooting the ball, hitting 40 percent (4/10) on treys and 36 percent (19/53) on two-point shots.

They hit 58 percent (7/12) of their free throws.

Columbia hit 22 percent (2/9) of their long balls, and 24 percent (9/37) of shots inside the arc. They hit 80 percent (8/10) of their free throws.

Mountain Home dominated the boards, outrebounding the Lady Wildcats, 35-24. Keesha Janis-Gibson led Mountain Home with eight rebounds.

Nampa 57

Mountain Home 36

It was another road game and another bad shooting night for the Lady Tigers Saturday night at they lost at Nampa to the Lady Bulldogs 57-36 in conference basketball.

Mountain Home did not make a field goal in the first quarter, going 0 for 14 from the field in the first eight minutes. They did hit four free throws in the quarter, but trailed 11-4, heading into the second quarter.

Emilee Schetzle's basket with 7:23 left in the first half was their first of the game. The Lady Tigers managed five field goals in the quarter but trailed 27-14 at halftime.

The success of Nampa's inside game with their 5' 9" twin freshmen posts hurt the Lady Tigers all night as their defense was unable to stop the inside game.

Offensively, Mountain Home got very few shots to drop, resulting in the 57-36 lopsided loss.

"We came out and started slow again on the road, similar to Timberline," said Coach Keener after the game. "We've got to find some scoring on the road and shoot the ball much better."

Courtney Christiansen led the Lady Tigers in scoring with a season high 10 points. Marissa Streeter netted six points, Teresa Fredell and Keesha Janis-Gibson both had five, Hailey Belt and Tessa Pachner both had a four and Emilee Schetzle scored two points.

The loss dropped the Lady Tigers to 1-3 on the season and 1-1 in conference play.

Mountain Home played at Caldwell on Tuesday before they travel to Skyview and Bishop Kelly later this week.