Tigers open conference with win over Caldwell

The Mountain Home Tigers opened their conference boys basketball schedule with a split last week, beating Caldwell at home but losing at Skyiew.

Mountain Home 65, Caldwell 40

The Mountain Home Tigers opened their boys basketball conference season with a 65-40 win over the Caldwell Cougars last Wednesday at Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

Sloppy ball handling by the Tigers and hot three-point shooting by Caldwell allowed the Cougars to grab an 11-8 lead after a quarter. Caldwell hit six of nine, three-point shots in the first half to build up a 24-19 lead with 3:28 left in the first half.

Back-to-back treys by Brion Bethel Jr. and Jymon Garretson gave the Tigers a one-point lead. Caldwell hit two basket to go up, 28-25, with 1:39 left.

From there, Mountain Home went on an 8-0 run to lead at half-time, 33-28, and extended the lead with an 11-0 run before the Cougars scored four and a half minutes into the third quarter. By then, the Tigers had built a 16-point advantage and led, 48-31, heading into the final quarter.

Mountain Home continued to dominate in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Cougars, 17-9, for the win.

Tigers basketball coach Brion Bethel liked the way his Tigers battled the adversity to take control of the game.

"It's fun watching these guys play when they get after it," he said. "We came out a little flat -- I'm not sure why -- but they really turned it on in the second half and took care of the ball and made good passes."

Jarek Schetzle had a double-double for the Tigers, scoring 18 points and bringing down 14 rebounds. Tyler Park added 15 points, Jymon Garretson netted 11, Brion Bethel Jr., nine, Jermaine Smith, six, Marcus Egusquiza, five, and Chris Wright, one.

The Tigers shot well from the field, hitting 55 percent of their shots, including five of 18 treys. They went to the free throw line nine times, hitting six for 67 percent.

Caldwell ended the night shooting just 33 percent from the field, and wound up finishing 7 of 18 on three-pointers, hitting just one of nine in the second half. The Cougars converted seven of 11 from the free throw line.

The Tigers dominated the boards, 31-15. Besides Schetzle's 14, Garrett McKenzie muscled down five boards with Marcus Egusquiza and Tyler Park each adding four.

Skyview 52, Mountain Home 39

Mountain Home ran into a hot-shooting Skyview ball club Saturday night at Skyview High School in Nampa and faded in the fourth quarter as the Hawks won, 52-39.

Skyview shot the ball well all night and ran out to 14-11 first quarter lead. They stretched the lead to 10 before the Tigers clawed back to within six, 21-15, at the half.

Mountain Home came out strong in the third quarter and shot to a 27-23 lead with 2:40 left in the quarter. The Hawks fought back to tie the game at 27 heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home took its last lead of the night early in the fourth quarter when Marcus Egusquiza hit a trey to put the Tigers up, 30-29. Skyview then went on an 11-0 run before Egusquiza hit two free throws to make it 40-32 with two minutes left. The Tigers could get no closer than six, 40-34, with 1:23 left, and Skyview hit 10 of 14 free throws down the stretch for the win.

"They played a great game," Bethel said regarding Skyview's performance. "Their coach, Aaron Sanders, did a great job and had his team ready to play. Our guys played hard, but couldn't get shots to fall. I didn't have a very good game plan, and didn't have our guys ready to play. Really, we just got outcoached. The good thing is, our boys worked hard and did their best as always and gave us every opportunity to win."

Jarek Schetzle led the Tigers with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Garrett McKenzie added seven points, Marcus Egusquiza and AJ Woodruff both scored five, Jermaine Smith, four, Chris Wright and Jymon Garretson both added two points and Tyler Park and Brion Bethel Jr. each had one point.

Mountain Home shot just 29 percent from the field, hitting just four of 26 three-point shots. They dropped in seven of 13 free throws.

Skyview hit 51 percent of its shots from the field, including four of 11 long balls. They connected on 11 of 19 from the foul line.

The loss evened the Tigers at 1-1 in conference and dropped them to 10-3 overall. Mountain Home hosts Bishop Kelly tonight, Jan. 21, and travels to Middleton on Friday night.