Lady Tigers lose two more

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers opened the new year with conference losses to Bishop Kelly and Middleton.

Bishop Kelly 57

Mountain Home 27

A slow start for Mountain Home put the Lady Tigers in the hole Wednesday night at Bishop Kelly, as they lost to the Lady Knights 57-27 in conference girls basketball at Bishop Kelly.

Mountain Home managed just two points in the first quarter as the Lady Knights shot to a 15-2 lead. The Lady Tigers trailed 25-10 at the half, and were down 43-16 after three. Their most productive quarter was the fourth, when they scored 11, to make it a 57-27 final.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Brent Keener saw some positives to take from the game, despite the loss.

"I thought defensively, especially in the first half, we did some good things," the coach said. "We just had a lot of trouble producing points, even though we didn't turn it over much. I was proud of how hard the girls played the whole game."

Whitney Sandberg led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 12 points. Taylor Reed added five points, Missy Jessup four, and Jacey Carr, Alexis Juarez and Julia Burton each scored two points.

Middleton 50, Mountain Home 17

Who says basketball is a non-contact sport? Having lost their leading scorer early in the season to a broken nose and concussion, Mountain Home lost two more to concussions in Wednesday night's game at Bishop Kelly. Down to just seven players due to those concussions suffered in the Bishop Kelly game, the Lady Tigers struggled again to put the ball in the hoop and fell to the Lady Vikings from Middleton 50-17 Friday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Middleton jumped out to a 13-0 lead before Missy Jessup's three-pointer put the Lady Tigers on the scoreboard with 1:55 left in the first quarter. It was 18-3, Middleton, after one, and 31-8, Middleton, at the half.

Mountain Home struggled all night to get shots to drop and trailed 39-13 after three. The team lost Whitney Sandberg to fouls in the third, leaving them with just six players, and Middleton went on to a 50-17 victory.

Coach Brent Keener agreed, the meager bench hurt them, but was proud of their effort all night long.

"Middleton's extremely good, and then when Whitney's in foul trouble, it's almost impossible, but the girls played really hard till the end. They gave everything they had, wore themselves out and just couldn't make any shots."

Missy Jessup led the Lady Tigers in scoring with eight points, Julia Burton added six, Alexis Juarez scored two and Venessa Sabol added one.

The Lady Tigers played at Kuna Tuesday night and host Caldwell on Thursday. Coach Keener was without Jacey Carr and Ashten Harrigan, who both suffered concussions at Bishop Kelly, but hopes to have at least one of them back for this week's games.

"I think Ashten's concussion is worse than Jacey's. I think Jacey should be back next week, but Ashten may be out a while," he said.