Basketball squad finishes second at district event

Friday, March 6, 2015

The Mountain Home Tigers head to state this week after a second-place finish at this year's district boys basketball tournament.

Mountain Home 57,

Bishop Kelly 49

After a six-year absence, the Mountain Home Tigers are heading back to the 4A State Boys Basketball Tournament. The Tigers punched their ticket with their 57-49 win over the Bishop Kelly Knights in the semi-finals of the District III 4A Tourney at Bishop Kelly last Monday.

Another huge black-out crowd from Mountain Home was in attendance, cheering the Tigers on from the start. After shooting out to an early 9-5 lead, Mountain Home fell behind by two after a quarter.

A 7-0 run by the Tigers gave Mountain Home a 16-11 lead early in the second with the team upping it to 25-18 at the half.

Mountain Home enjoyed its biggest lead of the night in the third quarter, when the team increased its lead to 37-25 with 2:11 left in the quarter. The Knights scored the final four points of the quarter as Mountain Home took an eight-point advantage heading into the fourth.

Bishop Kelly whittled the lead down to two points on three different occasions, the last at 48-46 with 1:02 left in the game.

The Tigers kept their defensive pressure up and cashed in from the free throw line, hitting 10 of 12 free throws in the fourth quarter with Jymon Garretson going eight-for-eight at the line down the stretch as Mountain Home beat the Knights.

Tigers head coach Brion Bethel was ecstatic with the win.

"I tell you what, I'm so proud of these guys," the coach said. "They worked hard and they gutted out a tough win in a hostile environment. It was hostile, but we had a huge crowd here. They played fantastic."

Bethel thought the fans played a big part in the win.

"With our band there, our students and our fans, it really felt like a home game, and that makes a huge difference for us," he said. "The home court advantage has been key for us all year, and our fans came out and came through for us big time."

Jymon Garretson and Jarek Schetzle paced the Tigers with 22 and 10 points respectively. AJ Woodruff and Tyler Park both scored six points, Christen Riedel added five while Jermaine Smith and Garrett McKenzie each scored four points.

Mountain Home shot 43 percent but hit just four of 17 three-pointers. They cashed in on 11 of 14 from the free throw line for 79 percent.

Bishop Kelly shot 33 percent from the field, hitting seven of 18 three-balls. The Knights also hit 10 of 19 from the foul line.

The Tigers controlled the boards, 33-20, with Jarek Schetle bringing down 16 rebounds. Tyler Park and Jymon Garretson both had five rebounds.

Middleton 62, Mountain Home 47

The Mountain Home Tigers were feeling pretty good after their win over Bishop Kelly. Not only had their win guaranteed them a berth at the state finals, but fourth-seeded Middleton knocked off top-seeded Kuna that night.

This meant the third-seeded Tigers hosted Middleton for the district championship in the friendly confines of Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, where Mountain Home was 11-0 to date this year.

But as tight as the conference race was this season, with five teams still alive for the top spot heading into the final two games of the regular season, that meant that nothing was a sure thing. Middleton proved that last Wednesday as it shut down the Tigers, 62-47, to win the district championship and become the number one seed from District III heading to state.

Mountain Home led 4-2 before the hot-shooting Vikings took control of the game and gradually built its lead. Middleton led by three after a quarter and stretched its lead to 25-18 at the half.

The Tigers managed to cut the deficit to five on a couple of occasions in the third quarter before Middleton increased its lead to 10. The Vikings led, 39-31, after three.

A 6-0 run at the start of the fourth put the Vikings in a commanding 45-31 lead. The closest Mountain Home came was 49-40 with 3:27 left as the Vikings built their lead to a 62-47 at the closing buzzer.

When asked whether his Tigers came out a bit flat after the team's huge win two days prior, Bethel offered quick praise Middleton for its effort.

"We weren't flat. Middleton just played well," the coach said. "Middleton is a very high-energy team, and they have the ability to make all teams look flat. We knew what to expect ahead of time, we just couldn't hit shots, and we just got outworked on the boards. But hats off to our kids; they played their hearts out. I'm still proud of them."

Jymon Garretson led the Tigers in scoring with 13 points. Jarek Schetzle, who sat out most of the second half, ended the night with seven points.

Meanwhile, Garrett McKenzie added six, Jermaine Smith and Christen Riedel had five each, Tyler Park had four, Marcus Egusquiza added three while Chris Wright and AJ Woodruff both scored two points.

Mountain Home shot just 39 percent from the field, hitting a frigid two of 19 three-point shots. The Tigers made 83 percent of their free throws but only went to the line six times, converting five.

In comparison, Middleton shot a hot 53 percent from the field, including four of 10 three-balls. They went to the free throw line 28 times, hitting 20 for 71 percent. They made 12 of 16 free throws in the fourth quarter.

The Vikings also dominated the boards, outrebounding the Tigers, 26-18. Jarek Schetzle led Mountain Home with seven rebounds.

The Tigers take a 17-7 overall record into the 4A State Tournament, which starts Thursday, March 5, at Borah High School in Boise.

"Hopefully, this (Middleton loss) will motivate us more to turn it up a little bit, because we just can't go in complacent thinking we can just show up and win," Bethel said. "This was a good experience for us."

Mountain Home opens at 6:15 Thursday evening against Lakeland, the north Idaho champion.

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