Lady Tigers snap three-game loss with Caldwell win

Mountain Home snapped a three-game losing skid with a win at Caldwell last Thursday but lost at home to Bishop Kelly on Saturday afternoon.

Mountain Home 45, Caldwell 42

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers overcame a sluggish first half to rally for a 45-42 conference girls basketball win at Caldwell Thursday night.

Mountain Home started slow, turning the ball over and missing shots, trailing 6-0 early and 10-5 after a quarter. It was 24-17, Caldwell, at the half.

The Lady Tigers came out in the second half with more intensity, and managed to tie the game at 25 and 27 in the third quarter, before falling behind 33-29 after three.

In the fourth quarter, Mountain Home fought back to tie it at 37, and took the first lead of the game, 40-38, on a trey by Whitney Sandberg with 3:01 left in the game. The Lady Tigers built the lead to 45-38 with 37 seconds left in the game.

Caldwell hit four three throws in the closing seconds to cut the Mountain Home lead to 45-42, and stole the inbounds pass, but a three-point attempt to tie at the buzzer was no good and the Lady Tigers prevailed.

"We obviously didn't shoot very well and didn't match Caldwell's energy in the first half," said Mountain Home girls basketball coach Brent Keener.

"Whitney (Sandberg) kept us in the game in the first half and then everyone picked up the energy in the second half. Whitney played a great game, and Jacci (Cristobal) was able to knock down some shots in the second half. The posts did a great job of rebounding and the bench provided some good minutes."

Jacci Cristobal and Whitney Sandberg both scored in double figures for Mountain Home. Cristobal had 17 and Sandberg 16. Tracey Gordon added nine, Sable Lohmeier two and Mattie Bennett had one point.

Mountain Home out rebounded Caldwell 38-33. Whitney Sandberg, Mattie Bennett and Tracey Gordon all had seven boards, while Sable Lohmeier had six.

Mountain Home and Caldwell both put up 60 shots at the basket. Mountain Home put in 16 (27percent), and Caldwell, 17 (28 percent). Mountain Home hit four of 20 (20 percent )three-point attempts, while Caldwell missed all 11 of their long ball throws. Mountain Home shot 53 percent (9/17) from the free-throw line while Caldwell shot 57 percent (8/14).

Bishop Kelly 63

Mountain Home 35

To win ball games, you must score more points than your opponent, and that's hard to do when the shots won't fall for you. That was definitely the case for Mountain Home Saturday afternoon when they lost to Bishop Kelly 63-35 in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

With the shots not dropping, the Lady Tigers fell behind 12-0 before Tracey Gordon's basket at the 3:21 mark of the first quarter got Mountain Home on the scoreboard. Bishop Kelly led 16-7 after a quarter.

The defending 4A State Champion Lady Knights were able to extend their lead to 38-19 at the half, and they led 51-31 after three quarters. They went on an 11-0 run in the fourth to establish the running clock when the lead reached 62-31 with 3:37 left in the game.

Mountain Home got their first points of the quarter on a basket by Whitney Sandberg with 2:10 left, and got free throws from Tracey Gordon and Jacci Cristobal to make it a 62-35 final.

"Field goal-wise, that was pretty ugly," said Coach Keener after the game of their poor shooting.

"And I didn't think the looks were that bad, we just didn't make many of them. Jacci took a lot of shots that I thought were good shots for her, but she missed a ton of them, and Mattie missed quite a few. Everyone did. It's tough when you don't make baskets."

Mattie Bennett led the Lady Tigers' scoring with 11 points, six of those from the free-throw line. Jacci Cristobal and Tracey Gordon both scored eight points, Whitney Sandberg had six points and Sable Lohmeier ended the night with two points.

The Lady Tigers fall to 3-5 in conference and 3-7 overall. They host Jerome tonight (Wednesday) and travel to Kuna Friday night.

The Mountain Home News continues its series of taking a closer look at the Lady Tiger varsity basketball team.

Morgan Vivier

Morgan is a five-foot, four-inch senior guard, the daughter of Sherene and Edward Vivier.

She lists softball, sewing and socializing as her hobbies. Morgan's goals for the season are to "become an overall better player and make 80 percent of my free throws."

Morgan's future goals are to "attend Idaho State University to become a nurse and possibly a nurse anesthetist."