Tigers fall to Bishop Kelly to stay winless

The Mountain Home Tigers returned to conference boys basketball action last Thursday night and dropped a 48-37 contest to the Knights of Bishop Kelly in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers stayed close to the Knights and trailed 16-10 after a quarter.

A basket by Bishop Kelly to start the second quarter made it 18-10 before the Tigers battled back within one 18-17, with 5:25 left in the half. The Knights took a 29-22 lead into the locker room at halftime.

After falling behind by 10, 35-25, midway through the third quarter, the Tigers fought back within four, 35-31, with 1:41 left in the quarter. It was 37-31, Bishop Kelly, heading into the fourth quarter.

The Knights built their lead to 45-31 with 5:39 left in the game.

Mountain Home managed to cut the deficit to eight, 45-37, but could come no closer, losing 48-37.

"I'm very happy with the defense tonight," said Tiger head basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game.

"I thought we did an excellent job there adjusting, taking stuff away from them. We created the opportunities, we just didn't capitalize on them."

Michael Daniels led the Tigers in scoring with a season-high 11 points. Brent Sexauer and J.T. Cristobal both added six, Alex Rodriguez had a season-high five points, Ricky Castillo and Tony McKenzie both scored four -- for McKenzie a new season-high -- and Dion Salinas had one point.

The Tigers, who put up ten more three-point attempts than they did two-point shots, hit just 28 percent (13/46) from the field, including six of 28 (21 percent) long-ball attempts. They hit 71 percent (5/7) of their free throws.

Bishop Kelly shot 43 percent (19/44) from the field, and connected on four of 10 treys for 40 percent. They shot 50 percent (6/12) from the foul line.

Bishop Kelly edged the Tigers 28-26 in rebounds. Ricky Castillo led the Tigers with eight boards.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 0-5 in conference and 0-9 on the season. They were at Kuna Tuesday night and go to Middleton Friday night.