Tigers' luck runs out in losses to Twin Falls, Jerome

The Mountain Home Tigers remained winless in boys basketball last week, losing non-conference home games to Twin Falls and Jerome.

Twin Falls 47, Mountain Home 24

A slow start for the Tigers last Thursday night put them in a hole they could not dig themselves out of, as they lost to the Twin Falls Bruins 47-24 in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

Mountain Home found themselves down 15-0 in the first quarter before J.T. Cristobal's three-pointer went in with 30 seconds left in the period.

It wasn't necessarily a case of poor shooting, although they made just one of six shots they shot, but 13 first-quarter turnovers kept them from getting any more shots off in the period.

Mountain Home managed to stay with the Bruins in the second and third quarters, but could not make up the deficit they found themselves in after the first quarter.

Twin Falls stretched its lead to 44-18 in the fourth quarter before the Tigers came back to make it a 47-24 final.

"Well, shots wouldn't drop, but I thought we got taken out of it by tempo, too," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot.

"Their defensive intensity and tempo took us away from things we wanted to do," he said. "I had us for 16 turnovers in the first half, and a large portion of those were in the first quarter when we didn't even get shots, I thought their defensive tempo had us in a frenzy to where we weren't going to shoot well."

Coach Kerfoot saw some positives in his team's defensive effort against the Bruins.

"I thought defensively, we played well. Offensively, we've got a ways to go," he said. "Defensively, we scrapped and we did some things, and hey, if you would have told me we were going to hold Twin under 50 I would have been real happy with that, but offensively, we've got to start getting going."

Michael Daniels led the Tigers in scoring with eight points, a new season high.

J.T. Cristobal scored five points, Brent Sexauer three, and Dion Salinas, Ricky Castillo, Tony McKenzie and Luke Filipovich each scored two points.

Mountain Home shot just 20 percent (8/40) from the field, hitting just two of 16 (13 percent) three-point shots and 46 percent (6/13) from the free-throw line.

Twin Falls shot 35 percent (18/52) from the field but just 13 percent (3/24) on long balls. They hit 62 percent (8/13) from the foul line.

Jerome 55, Mountain Home 42

Mountain Home went over five minutes without scoring in the second quarter while Jerome went on an 11-0 run to build up a 29-16 halftime advantage on their way to a 55-42 win at Mountain Home Friday night.

Jerome led from start to finish, but Mountain Home stayed close early. The visiting Tigers were up 14-9 after a quarter.

Mountain Home got within one, 15-14, with 6:12 left in the first half, but went well over five minutes before they scored again. Meanwhile, Jerome went on an 11-0 run during that time and led 29-16 at the half.

Jerome led 43-29 heading into the final quarter and stretched its lead to 54-3, with 3:10 left in the game before Mountain Home closed the gap to 55-42 at the end.

Coach Kerfoot saw some good things from the offensive effort against Jerome.

"It was much better. We answered the first quarter, but then the second quarter was kind of like where we were in the first quarter last night," the coach said.

"Defensively, we're still scrapping and did some things," he added. "But you know, Jerome's a good ball club, and I knew they would be. But we had some good moments tonight, and I thought we played a lot better. I'm kind of happy with our progress. Now we just need to get it consistent for four quarters."

Brent Sexauer had a season-high 19 points to lead Mountain Home against Jerome. J.T. Cristobal added 12 points, Michael Daniels seven and Ricky Castillo four.

Mountain Home shot 32 percent (14/44) from the field, hitting eight of 20 (40 percent) long balls, and shot 53 percent (6/11) from the free-throw line.

Jerome hit 43 percent (18/42) of its shots from the field, including four of 12 (33 percent) on treys. They shot 58 percent (15/26) of their free throws.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 0-8 on the season.

They return to conference action Thursday night at home against Bishop Kelly.

"That'll be a tough one," said Coach Kerfoot of the Knights. "I think they're one of the better teams in the league. They have good athletes and you're going to have to cover them because they've got shooters, and then they've got big guys inside, too, so that'll be a tough defensive challenge for us. They're going to be a very scrappy man-to-man defense and physical, so we're going to have to be ready for that, too."

The Tigers host Bishop Kelly on Thursday before the Mountain Home team hits the road to take on Kuna and Middleton next week.