Tigers come up short against Caldwell, Skyview

The Mountain Home Tigers played hard, but came up short in conference boys basketball games against Caldwell and Skyview last week.

Caldwell 51, Mountain Home 35

The Tigers shot just 18 percent (3/17) from the field in the first half at Caldwell last Tuesday as they dropped a 51-35 contest to the previously winless Cougars.

Mountain Home managed just one free throw in the first quarter, missing all seven field goal attempts, but trailed just 6-1 after a quarter. It was 19-8, Caldwell, at the half.

The Tigers fell behind, 26-11, early in the third quarter before they battled back to within seven, 36-29, at the end of the third.

Caldwell went on a 6-0 run to start the fourth quarter and up their lead to 42-29. The Tigers whittled the deficit to nine, 44-35, with about two minutes left, but a 7-0 Cougar run made it a 51-35 final.

Despite another slow start offensively, Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot thought his Tigers played hard.

"I thought defensively we hustled, we scrapped, and we kind of kept close, and we were still in the ball game, but I don't know, I'm kind of at a loss, but there are times when we just don't execute very well at all."

Ricky Castillo led the Tigers in scoring with 16 points, with 12 of them coming in the third quarter when the Tigers got back within seven. Brent Sexauer added nine, J.T. Cristobal four and Doug Long and Michael Daniels both scored three points.

The Tigers hit 20 percent (4/20) of their three-pointers, 41 percent (9/22) of their two-pointers, and a dismal 33 percent (5/15) of their free throws.

Caldwell hit 36 percent (5/14) of their long balls, 42 percent (14/33) inside the arc, and shot 57 percent (8/14) from the free-throw line.

Caldwell won the battle on the boards 29-24. Dion Salinas led Mountain Home with nine rebounds.

Skyview 50, Mountain Home 38

Mountain Home had one of its best offensive efforts in the first half at Skyview last Thursday night, but cooled off in the second half to fall to the Hawks 50-38.

The teams battled in the first half, with the score tied at 10 after a quarter. The fifth tie of the game was at 26-26 before Skyview shot to a 30-26 halftime advantage.

Mountain Home's shooting cooled down in the second half, but the Tiger defense kept them in the game. It was 37-30, Skyview, after three and ended up 50-38, Hawks.

"I thought we fought all the way," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "We've had some rough games -- Nampa, we may have let down the guard a little bit there, and Caldwell wasn't quite going for us offensively, but I never doubted that we hustled and scrapped and kept fighting.

"Tonight we got off to a much better start, so I thought that was a lot better. But down at the end, you kind of need to get that third quarter, when they're not overplaying and giving us so much. We needed to know the next step in the offense and we didn't, and I thought that's where we kind of fell apart.

"That's going to get there. We adjusted a couple of things, and some of them picked up on it and some of them didn't. We've just got to work to get a stronger group effort, as far as knowing where each other are, and where to be all the time. Our offensive execution -- people in the right positions -- wasn't good tonight."

J.T. Cristobal led the Tiger scoring attack with 13 points, Brent Sexauer added eight, Dion Salinas six, Ricky Castillo and Doug Long each had four and Alex Rodriguez three.

After shooting 48 percent (10/21) from the field in the first half, the Tigers ended the night shooting 33 percent (15/46), and missed all 15 three-point attempts in the second half. They shot 56 percent (5/9) from the free-throw line.

The Hawks ended the night shooting 35 percent (16/46) from the field and hitting 56 percent (14/25) from the foul line.

The Hawks narrowly won the rebound battle, 36-34. Dion Salinas led the Tigers on the boards with 11.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 0-6 on the season and 0-4 in conference. They return to action Dec. 29 at home against Twin Falls and Dec. 30 at home against Jerome. Both games have 6 p.m. start times.