Lady Tigers open at district tournament with loss to Kuna

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers continued to show improvement but ended their regular season basketball schedule with a loss at Caldwell. They opened this year's district tournament with a loss at Kuna.

Caldwell 44, Mountain Home 23

It looked like the Mountain Home Lady Tigers would finally get their first win of the season last Tuesday, when they faced Caldwell in their regular season final. But the Lady Cougars came out strong in the second half and downed Mountain Home, 44-23.

Mountain Home fell behind by three early in the game but went on a nine-point run to go up, 9-3, before the Lady Cougars finally got a shot to drop -- a trey in the final minute of the first quarter -- as Mountain Home led, 9-6, after a quarter.

The Lady Tigers' aggressive defense helped thwart Caldwell's offense with the Lady Cougars hitting just two of 23 shots in the first half. Mountain Home took an 18-9 lead into the locker room at halftime.

But one of the reasons Mountain Home is winless is its inability to play four quarters ­-- two halves of consistent basketball. Tuesday would be no different as the Lady Tigers, who had outrebounded Caldwell 18-7 in the first half, struggled at every aspect of the game in the second.

Caldwell also scored seven of its 14 third quarter points from the free throw line as the Lady Tigers were whistled right and left for fouls. Caldwell outscored the Lady Tigers, 14-3, in the third quarter to take a two-point lead heading into the fourth.

The Lady Cougars heated up their shooting in the fourth, hitting eight of 11 field goals, including three of four treys to score 21 points. All Mountain Home could muster were two free throws with the night ending in Caldwell's favor.

Mountain Home girls basketball coach Brent Keener thought his Lady Tigers played a great first half.

"We played probably our best half of basketball in the season in that first half," the coach said. "We did awesome on defense and had a great pace on offense. We missed some box-outs early in the second half, the fouls started to add up quickly against us early in the second half, and we couldn't buy a basket in the third quarter. We lost all the faith in the fourth and just went through the motions."

Whitney Sandberg led Mountain Home in scoring with nine points. Julia Burton added six, Jacey Carr, Taylor Reed, Missy Jessup and Ana Pedroza each scored two points to round out the scoring.

Mountain Home shot just 17 percent from the field for the game, hitting just one of its 13 three-balls and hit one of 19 in the second half. They were 48 percent from the free throw line, hitting jut three of 10 from the line second half.

Caldwell, who shot just nine percent first half, ended the night shooting 28 percent along with 13 of its 28 free throws. The Lady Cougars ended up outrebounding the Lady Tigers, 29-27. Jacey Carr led Mountain Home with seven rebounds.

Mountain Home finished the regular season 0-21 on the season and 0-10 in conference play. They opened district tournament play against third-seeded Kuna during an away game at Kuna.

Kuna 50, Mountain Home 37

Mountain Home spotted Kuna seven points to start the game. Although the Lady Tigers cut the deficit numerous times, they were never able to take the lead and came up short to the Lady Kavemen, 50-37, Saturday night at Kuna in first round action of the District III 4A girls basketball tournament.

Mountain home trailed by seven after a quarter, and managed to cut the deficit to one, 17-16, with 1:46 left in the first half. But turnovers the next two times down the floor led to Kuna scores, as the Lady Kavemen went into the locker room with a 22-16 halftime lead.

The Lady Tigers hung tough in the third quarter, trimming the margin down to three points before Kuna stretched it back up to 34-26 heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home saw the deficit reach double figures in the fourth quarter and managed to hit three treys to try and keep up. But Kuna hit six of 10 free throws down the stretch to pick up the win.

"Turnovers really did kill us, and then some missed rebound opportunities -- those second chance opportunities killed us," Coach Keener said. "But I thought overall we played fairly hard."

Whitney Sandberg led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 11 points. Missy Jessup and Anna Peroza both scored six, Venessa Sabol and Alexis Juarez each added four, Liz Ryan had three, Julia Burton added two and Jacey Carr finished with one.

The Lady Tigers faced Caldwell Monday night at Caldwell in a loser-out game.