Lady Tigers excel with back-to-back victories

The new year has been good for the Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball team as they picked up conference wins over Emmett and Columbia last week.

Mountain Home 61, Emmett 10

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers came out in a swarming defense that caused havoc for Emmett Thursday night and resulted in a 61-10 Mountain Home win over the winless Lady Huskies.

Mountain Home came out strong, running to a 22-5 first quarter lead, stretching it to 45-8 at the half and 55-8 after three quarters.

"That was probably our best effort of the season -- especially that first half -- to put up 45 points in the first half is pretty good. And defensively, we did a heck of a job," said Lady Tigers' Coach Brent Keener

Mountain Home got balanced scoring, led by Mattie Bennett with 12 points. Selena Foster and Tracey Gordon both netted 10, the 10 points a new season high for Gordon. Marissa Streeter added nine, Jacci Cristobal eight, Madi Karst seven and Tessa Pachner rounded out the scoring with four points.

Mountain Home shot 34 percent from the field, hitting four of 15 three-point shots. They hit 58 percent from the free-throw line. Emmett hit just four of 33 shots put up, missing all five three-point attempts, and made just two of 18 free throws.

The Lady Tigers forced 39 Emmett turnovers, turning them into 34 points. Mountain Home out-rebounded the Lady Huskies, 43-30, led by Madi Karst and Selena Foster with 10 each.

Mountain Home 62, Columbia 38

It was more of the same Friday night at Columbia, as the Lady Tigers shot out to another big lead and downed Columbia 62-38.

Mountain Home led 22-9, after a quarter, and were up 38-22 at the half. A 16-4 edge in the third quarter made it 54-26 and put the game out of reach.

Marissa Streeter and Jacci Cristobal both set new season highs in scoring at Columbia, Streeter scored 18 points and Cristobal 16. Selena Foster added nine points, Tracey Gordon, eight, Madi Karst, four, Mattie Bennett, three, Whitney Sandberg and Tessa Pachner both scored two points.

Mountain Home shot 42 percent from the field, hitting four of 15 long-balls, and shot a dismal 38 percent from the free throw line. Columbia shot 26 percent from the field, hitting just two of 17 three-pointers. They shot 43 percent from the foul line.

Mountain Home won the battle on the boards, 41-21, led by Marissa Streeter with eight and Selena Foster and Jacci Cristobal with seven each. Tracey Gordon brought down six rebounds and blocked three shots. Marissa Streeter also had seven assists and seven steals.

The Lady Tigers are now 5-5 in conference and 5-9 overall. They host Nampa tonight (Wednesday) and host Caldwell on Friday night.

Coach Keener hopes to see his girls continue winning to move up in the conference standings.

Friday night's girls game starts at 6 p.m., part of a girls-boys doubleheader with Caldwell.