Mountain Home drops games against Jerome, Kuna

Thursday, December 26, 2013

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers let a couple games get away from them last week, losing to Jerome and Kuna.

Jerome 59, Mountain Home 56

In a battle of Lady Tigers, the visitors from Jerome left Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium with a 59-56 win over Mountain Home last Wednesday.

Mountain Home, who shot just 16 percent from the field its last time out against Bishop Kelly, started out cold again. The team fell behind, 9-0, before Mattie Bennett's basket at the 3:25 mark of the first quarter put them on the board. However, Jerome still led by eight after a quarter and were up, 35-25, at the half.

Mountain Home was never able to get close until the fourth quarter, when the squad started chipping away at the lead, whittling it down to two, 58-56, on Jacci Cristobal's trey with 5.5 seconds left in the game.

Jessica Praegitzer hit one of two free throws with three seconds left to make it 59-56, but Mountain Home was unable to get a shot off before the buzzer.

Despite the loss, Mountain Home coach Brent Keener thought his team played well.

"We definitely battled them, and I thought Jerome shot the ball really well in that first half," the coach said. "We were down 10 at half, but we stayed with it, and battled 'til the end and gave ourselves a chance at the end at least to tie it."

Mattie Bennett and Jacci Cristobal led Mountain Home in scoring. Bennett had a career-high 25, Cristobal netted 19 points. Bennett also led the team with three steals and three blocks. Tracey Gordon added seven points, Whitney Sandberg had three, and Sable Lohmeier, two. Lohmeier also led the team with seven rebounds.

Kuna 51, Mountain Home 42

A bad third quarter proved to be the difference for the Lady Tigers on Friday as they lost to Kuna, 51-42, during an away game.

Mountain Home shot out to a 15-9 edge in the first quarter and were up by two at the half.

Kuna outscored the Lady Tigers, 18-8, in the third quarter to go up, 41-33, after three quarters.

The Lady Tigers were unable to mount a fourth quarter rally and came up short.

"The third quarter was the killer for us," Keener said. "After such a good start in the first quarter, we struggled to score the ball. We were aggressive and got to the line, but missed way too many free throws. Sable (Lohmeier) played her best game yet, and was very aggressive. Whitney (Sandberg) struggled again with foul trouble and fouled out."

Sable Lohmeier led the Lady Tigers in scoring with a career-high 13 points. She just missed a double-double, bringing down nine rebounds. Mattie Bennett added 12 points, Whiney Sandberg and Jacci Cristobal both scored six, and Tracey Gordon had five points.

Mountain Home didn't shoot well for the game, hitting only 23 percent from the field, including just one of 10 three-pointers. The Lady Tigers hit 11 of 27 from the free throw line.

The Lady Tigers head into the Christmas break 3-9 overall and 3-5 in league play. Keener hopes to finally have Madi Karst, who was out all season with a foot injury, after the break. He hopes they can improve their shooting in the new year.

"Madi Karst is hopefully only a couple weeks out, which will help a ton. We've got to be able to shoot the ball better, and will continue to work on shooting and cleaning up the little things. "We haven't taken a lot of bad shots, but they are shots that we need to make more of at the varsity level."

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

KRISTAN JACKSON

Kristan Jackson is a five-foot, one-inch senior wing. The daughter of Margo and Curtis Jackson, she is a member of the high school's Health Occupations Students of America,the National Honor Society, Link Crew and a representative on the school's student council.

Her goals for the season include, "improve as a player and become a better ball handler, and to take more shots during games."

Jackson plans on attending college to study radiology, but "I'm still keeping my options open, because I'm still deciding where I want to go."

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