Lady Tigers drop fourth straight game in loss to Kuna

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers dropped their fourth straight girls basketball game Friday night, losing to Kuna 57-52 on the road.

Mountain Home led on a couple of occasions early, the last at 8-7, on a basket by Teresa Fredell with 1:57 left in the first quarter.

From there, Kuna went on a 14-0 run, leading 13-8 at the quarter's end and 21-8 before Keesha Janis-Gibson cashed in on one of two free throws to stop the run three minutes into the second quarter.

The Lady Tigers managed to cut the lead down to five, 23-18, with 2:24 left in the half, but Kuna upped it to 31-21 at halftime.

Mountain Home again whittled the lead down to five in the third quarter, trailing only 37-32 leading into the fourth.

Kuna stretched the lead back out to 47-37 with 3:50 left in the game, but back came the Lady Tigers. Keesha Janis-Gibson's basket with 1:30 left cut the Kuna lead to one, 49-48, but Kuna hit six of eight free throws down the stretch to win it 57-52.

Mountain Home girls basketball coach Brent Keener liked the never-give-up attitude his Lady Tigers showed.

"We didn't quit, which is good. I saw some real positives from a few individuals. I thought JaDene Palmer was huge -- she played some huge minutes for us when some of our starters didn't look like they were ready to play.

"Teresa (Fredell) obviously hit some big shots -- that was pretty cool -- and Selena (Foster) did a great job off the bench, too," the coach added. "That lineup got us back into the game. They never quit."

Teresa Fredell led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 16 points, 11 of them in the fourth quarter. Keesha Janis-Gibson put in 14 points, Hailey Belt seven, Marissa Streeter, Tessa Pachner and Selena Foster each had four and Courtney Christiansen had three.

Mountain Home connected on three of 16 (19 percent) three-point shots, and hit 46 percent (12/26) of their shots inside the arc. They made 63 percent (19/30) of their free throws.

Kuna connected on only one of 11 (9 percent) long balls, shot 39 percent (17/44) of its two-pointers, and behind Ruby Shreeve's 11/14 effort from the charity stripe, hit 69 percent (20/29) of its free shots.

Mountain Home dominated the boards, 40-23, with Keesha Janis-Gibson bringing down 10 and Selena Foster seven. The Lady Tigers drop to 2-4 in league play and 2-6 overall.

Mountain Home is at Middleton Thursday night, and home against Emmett for a 2 p.m. Saturday game (frosh-soph action starts at 11 a.m. followed by the junior varsity game at approximately 12:30 p.m. ).

"We're going to have to be ready for some pressure from Middleton, as they sure know how to defend," Coach Keener said. "That was our real issue tonight (with Kuna). We've got to have some girls do a much better job against the double-team. We're just total panic-mode on the perimeter, and it's frustrating, because it's not just the turnovers (Mountain Home had 30 against Kuna), but it's the turnovers the girls make continually."