Lady Tigers drop two more in losses to Middleton, Kuna

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers dropped two more conference girls basketball games last week.

Middleton 47, Mountain Home 18

Turnovers and an inability to score continued to plague the Mountain Home Lady Tigers on the road last Tuesday night as they lost to Middleton, 47-18.

Mountain Home managed just two points in the first quarter but stayed close, holding the Lady Vikings to just eight. Middleton extended its lead to 14-3 in the second quarter and widened it to 22-5 at halftime. The Lady Vikings continued to dominate the board with a commanding 34-9 lead after three. The Lady Tigers doubled their point output in the fourth quarter but came up short.

"We were really flat and struggled early against Middleton's defensive pressure and traps and had lots of turnovers," said Mountain Home Lady Tigers basketball coach Brent Keener. "We once again struggled mightily to score the basketball."

Just three Lady Tigers scored, led by Whitney Sandberg with nine points and nine rebounds. Anna Pedroza added five points for Mountain Home while and Alexis Juarez scored four.

Kuna 48, Mountain Home 31

Mountain Home's five seniors played their final girls basketball game in front of the home fans Thursday night. Mattie Bennett, who had been sidelined since the third game of the season against Gooding after she broke her nose and received a season-ending concussion, suited up and played the first 10 seconds.

Bennett played long enough to hit a three-pointer that had the Mountain Home fans both cheering and teary-eyed. The Lady Tigers fought hard but came up on the short end of a 48-31 conference contest with Kuna.

Bennett's trey gave the Lady Tigers a lead they would hold until Allison Law hit one of two free throws to give Kuna a 4-3 lead with 5:47 left in the first quarter. The Lady Kavemen led the rest of the way, but Mountain Home would not go away, and battled them tough the whole game.

Kuna led by 10 after a quarter and were up, 28-17, at the half.

Mountain Home pulled to within six on Whitney Sandberg's trey with 2:27 left in the third quarter but lost senior Melissa Jessup to a possible concussion with 1:21 left in the quarter, leaving the Lady Tigers trailing, 34-26, after three.

Kuna hit a three to start the fourth quarter to up its lead to 37-26. Anna Pederoza scored to bring the Lady Tigers within nine a few seconds later, but that would be the closest they would get the rest of the night, as Kuna went on an 11-3 run to seal the victory.

Despite the loss, Coach Keener thought his girls played with lots of heart.

"It was a great effort," the coach said in his post-game comments "It kind of hurt us when Missy went down, and I didn't want to take any chances with that fall -- she hit her head pretty decent. It was pretty awesome to see Mattie come in and knock down a three. I thought that was pretty sweet."

Whitney Sandberg led Mountain Home in scoring with nine points. Alexis Juarez added six, Taylor Reed and Julia Burton both scored four, Missy Jessup and Mattie Bennett each scored three and Anna Pedroza added two points.

The Kuna loss dropped the Lady Tigers to 0-20 on the season and 0-9 in conference play. They closed out their regular season schedule at Caldwell on Tuesday.

The District III 4A Girls Basketball Tourney begins Saturday.