Lady Tigers return to win column with victory over Kuna

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers returned to the win column Friday night with a 56-50 conference basketball win over Kuna in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The win, which avenged an earlier 57-52 loss to the Lady Kavemen at Kuna, was a battle throughout, with ten lead changes and four ties.

Mountain Home led throughout the first quarter, leading 13-10 heading into the second quarter. Kuna went on an 11-0 run in the second quarter to go up 21-13 before the Lady Tigers finally scored on a trey by Courtney Christiansen with 3:45 left in the half.

Kuna led 26-24 going into the third quarter. Mountain Home managed to take the lead briefly but trailed 35-34 heading in the final eight minutes of play.

Mountain Home went on a 7-0 run to start the fourth quarter to go up 41-35, but the Lady Kavemen came back to lead 45-44 with 3:15 left. The lead went back and forth from there with Kuna up by one with 1:53 left.

Selena Foster led the Mountain Home charge from there, scoring five of the Lady Tigers final seven points, as Mountain Home prevailed 56-50.

Lady Tiger basketball coach Brent Keener was pleased to get the win.

"It was an exciting high school girls basketball game," he said. "It definitely wasn't pretty at times, but the girls battled and came through with the win. With Kuna's two big girls out, I didn't think we'd have too much trouble, but give Kuna credit, they played hard. It was nice to see our girls step up and take care of the ball at the end and get the win."

Keesha Janis-Gibson led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 13 points. Teresa Fredell netted 12, Selena Foster eight, Courtney Christiansen and Emilee Schetzle both scored six, Merissa Streeter and Tessa Pachner had four apiece and Hailey Belt put in three points.

Mountain Home shot 31 percent (17/55) from the field, including three of 13 (23 percent) three-pointers. They hit 19 of 32 free throws (59 percent).

Kuna shot 38 percent (19/50) from the field, hitting two of the eight (25 percent) treys they put up. They shot just 45 percent (10/22) from the foul line.

Mountain Home won the battle on the boards, 45-30, with Keesha Janis-Gibson bring down 12 rebounds, Selena Foster 10 and Tessa Pachner eight.

The win improved the Lady Tigers to 6-8 in conference play and 6-12 on the season. On Jan. 17, Mountain Home honored six seniors during Senior Night against Middleton.

They close out their regular season schedule Thursday night at Emmett with the District III 4A girls basketball tourney starting Feb. 1.