Tigers extend winning streak with victory over Emmett

Thursday, February 27, 2014

The win streak reached three Tuesday night as the Tigers avenged an earlier overtime loss to Emmett by holding off the Huskies 66-65 in overtime in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

Mountain Home 66,

Emmett 65 (O.T.)

The game, which had 12 lead changes, went back and forth, with Emmett leading after a quarter, 16-12, and 29-26 at the half. It was 43-37 after three.

Emmett built its lead to 10 points, 51-41, with 3:38 left in the fourth quarter, and looked to be on its way to claiming another victory over the Tigers.

But Mountain Home refused to concede and the Tigers went on a 15-3 run to take the lead, 56-54, with 36.8 seconds left in regulation.

The Tigers had a chance to increase the lead, but missed two free throws with 34.4 seconds and again with 25 seconds left.

The Huskies played for the last shot and Noah Williams' attempt was off the mark, but Luke Hyde was there to put it in at the buzzer to tie the game and force overtime.

It was Mountain Home's fourth overtime game of the season, and they had been on the short end of the first three. This time, Mountain Home built up a 63-58 lead with 1:12 left in overtime.

After Emmett cut it back to three, 63-60, AJ Woodruff hit a basket to extend it back to five, 65-60, with 20 seconds left.

The Huskies then cut it to 65-62, and Christian Riedel hit one of two free throws to make it 66-62, with 3.5 seconds left.

Noah Williams hit a trey at the buzzer to make it a 66-65 final.

"We've been on the other side of those overtime games a few times, so it's nice to be on the right side of one of those wins," said Tiger Coach Brion Bethel.

"The kids just played great -- they battled back -- they did everything they had to do to win the game. I'm proud of them."

The Tigers end the regular season 5-11 in conference and 5-15 overall. They earned the number seven seed and opened the District III 4A Tournament against Middleton.

Vikings 59, Tigers 40

The Tigers' road to the Real Dairy Shootout, the Idaho High School State Basketball Tournament, took a detour Saturday after they dropped a 59-40 game to the Middleton Vikings at Middleton in first round District III 4A Tournament action.

It was a slow start for the Tigers, who scored their first point of the game with 2:32 left in the first quarter when Tyler Park hit one of two free throws. That made it 11-1, Vikings. Mountain Home's first field goal came 53 seconds later when Garrett McKenzie hit a trey to make it 14-4. The Vikings led 18-4 after a quarter.

Mountain Home was not able to make up any ground in the second quarter and trailed at halftime, 33-18, but the Tigers came out strong in the third quarter and got to within four, 37-33, with 2:43 left in the third. It was 41-36, Middleton, after three.

Mountain Home wasn't able get anything going in the fourth, and Middleton canned a couple treys and made seven of eight from the free throw line to make it a 59-40 final.

"We just kind of ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. The kids worked hard, they just couldn't get some shots to fall and it just didn't come together for us," said Coach Bethel.

Jarek Schetzle led the Tigers in scoring with 15 points, Devin Wright added eight, Garrett McKenzie scored seven, AJ Woodruff, five, Chris Wright, four, and Tyler Park, one.

The loss put the Tigers in the consolation bracket, needing three straight wins to make state, starting with Emmett on Tuesday night at Emmett. Coach Bethel still believes his guys can do it.

"It just got a lot more difficult. Now we've got to play another three games to get there -- it's not the way we wanted to do it, but we're taking it one game at a time," the coach said. "Every game's our state championship and we still have an opportunity to come out and play, so we're excited just to still be here and playing."

The Mountain Home News continues its series of taking a closer look at the Mountain Home Tigers boys basketball team.

Jake Egusquiza

Jake Egusquiza is a six-foot, two-inch junior. The son of Mitch and Brenda Egusquiza, his hobbies include basketball, hunting, golfing and hanging out with his friends.