Lady Tigers drop 2 additional conference games

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers saw their losing skid reach four with conference losses last week to Skyview and Bishop Kelly.

Skyview 68, Mountain Home 49

Last Tuesday night's Mountain Home-Skyview game proved to be a battle of halves as Mountain Home had a good first half effort, but came out slow in the second half and lost to the Lady Hawks 68-49.

Mountain Home stayed close in the first quarter, leading early on, before falling behind by five. They battled back to within two, and had several chances to either tie or take the lead, but couldn't get the shots to drop and trailed 15-13 after a quarter.

The Lady Hawks quickly built their lead to eight points, before Mountain Home battled back to within four, but failed on several times down the floor with a chance to come closer. It was 28-24, Skyview, at the half.

Defensive pressure got to the Lady Tigers in the third quarter as Skyview's half-court trap caused numerous turnovers that turned into points for the Lady Hawks as they built their lead to 54-34 after three quarters.

Skyview enjoyed its biggest lead of the game, 66-38 in the fourth quarter, before the Lady Hawks went on an 11-2 run to end the ball game 68-49.

"We played really well that first half," said Mountain Home Lady Tigers basketball coach Brent Keener. "We had a lot of energy, played hard, and we left it in the locker room (at halftime), because that third quarter was ugly.

"We knew they were going to throw that half-court trap against us. We'd worked on it for the last couple days, but still we had girls not in the right position, and then just telegraphing way too many passes, especially in the middle. We get it up towards half court and there's three defenders in the middle and we still try to throw it there."

Selena Foster and Jacci Cristobal hit for double figures against Skyview. Foster led the way with a double-double, scoring 17 points and bringing down 12 rebounds. Cristobal added 11 points. Tessa Pachner was next with six points, Whitney Sandberg added five, Marissa Streeter and Mattie Bennett both scored four and Tracey Gordon had two points.

Mountain Home hit 32 percent of its shots from the field, including two of nine three-pointers. They made 56 percent from the free-throw line.

Skyview shot 43 percent from the field and hit six of 13 long balls. They shot 71 percent from the foul line.

Lady Knights 59, Lady Tigers 19

With the outside temperature in the single digits, Mountain Home's shooting percentage inside the gym at Bishop Kelly Friday night was not much better, as the Lady Tigers went nearly 15 minutes without a field goal in a 59-19 conference loss to the Lady Knights.

Mountain Home made just two of 10 shots in the first quarter and trailed 20-4 after a quarter. Their final points in the first quarter came on a basket by Selena Foster with a minute left in the period. They went scoreless in the second quarter (eight minutes), trailing 37-4 at the half, and although they scored five free throws in the third quarter, their next field goal did not come until Jacci Cristobal hit a trey with 2:15 left in the quarter -- a span of 14 minutes and 45 seconds between field goals. It was 52-15 after three quarters.

Selena Foster led the Mountain Home scoring with seven points. Jacci Cristobal added five, Tessa Pachner three, Mattie Bennett two, and Madi Karst and Tracey Gordon both scored one point.

The Lady Tigers shot a frigid 14 percent from the field, hitting just one of 11 three-point attempts, and made just 47 percent of their free throws. Mountain Home had 30 turnovers for the ball game.

Bishop Kelly shot 44 percent from the field, hitting five of nine beyond the arc. They made eight of 13 from the free-throw line.

The Lady Knights won the battle on the boards, 27-20. Tessa Pachner led Mountain Home with six rebounds.

The loss dropped Mountain Home to 5-9 in conference and 5-13 overall. The Lady Tigers have just one game this week, hosting Kuna on Friday in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium as part of a girls-boys varsity doubleheader. The contest begins at 6 p.m. with no preliminary games.