Tigers 3rd at state

Thursday, March 12, 2015
Members of the Mountain Home Tigers varsity basketball team pose for a group photo before they left for this year's state tournament.

Not since 1980 had the Mountain Home Tigers won any games at a boys' state basketball tournament.

Although their ultimate goal of a first-ever state championship for Mountain Home in basketball got detoured in the semi-finals, the Tigers bounced back to come home with the third-place trophy from the 4A State Tournament at Borah High School in Boise.

Mountain Home 47, Lakeland 32

The Mountain Home Tigers opened the state basketball tournament with a 47-32 win over the Lakeland Hawks on Thursday.

After falling behind by two in the opening quarter, Mountain Home took the lead on a trey by Jymon Garretson. Jarek Schetzle scored Mountain Home's next five points as the Tigers led, 8-4, after a quarter.

A 7-0 run by Mountain Home at the start the second quarter pushed the lead to 11 with the Tigers leading, 19-9, at the half.

Marcus Equsquiza sparked the Tigers to a 25-11 lead with 5:30 left in the third quarter, but Lakeland ended the quarter on a 9-0 run to cut Mountain Home's lead to five after three quarters.

Jymon Garretson drained a three to open the fourth, as the Tigers lead went to 28-20. Tigers seniors Jarek Schetzle, Tyler Park and Christen Riedel came up with clutch baskets as the Tigers built their lead to double digits.

"When they really started coming back, we went to our veterans -- our seniors -- and they really settled down and really took care of the ball for us," said Tigers basketball coach Brion Bethel. "Having that senior leadership -- there's nothing like it."

After a three-point play by Lakeland cut the Tigers' lead to 39-31 with 1:54 left, Mountain Home cashed in from the free throw line, hitting eight of eight, including six by Jymon Garretson, as the Tigers pulled away for Mountain Home's first state tournament win in 35 years.

"I thought the boys came out with a lot of energy," Coach Bethel said. "They played real hard and they really wanted it, and I was really happy with how they attacked the game and played great defense."

Three Mountain Home Tigers scored in double figures. Jymon Garretson led the way with 12, Jarek Schetzle added 11 and Tyler Park had 10. Marcus Equsquiza netted six, Christen Riedel hit three, Chris Wright and Jermaine Smith each had two and Garrett McKenzie scored one. Smith led the Tigers in assists with five.

The Tigers shot 41 percent from the field, including five of 18 three pointers. Mountain Home shot 89 percent from the free throw line.

Lakeland shot 24 percent from the field, hitting just two of 20 three-balls. The team connected 53 percent of the time from the foul line.

Rigby 39, Mountain Home 33

In a game of runs, the Rigby Trojans put together three 7-0 runs. Mountain Home was able to counter the first two, but the third gave the Trojans the lead for good, as Rigby, playing in its third state tournament in four years, held off the Mountain Home Tigers to advance to the state championship game.

Rigby started strong, jumping out to a 7-0 with 6:14 left in the first quarter.

Coach Bethel called a timeout at that point to calm his Tigers down. It worked, and for the rest of the quarter, Mountain Home held the Trojans scoreless and went into the second quarter with an 8-7 lead.

Two quick baskets by Rigby's Nick Huston to start the second quarter put the Trojans up, 11-8. Marcus Egusquiza's trey for the Tigers tied the game at 11 with 4:39 left in the half.

Rigby's Tyrel Phillips answered to put the Trojans back ahead, 14-11, with 3:30 left in the half. A basket by Jarek Schetzle put the Tigers within one, 14-13, but Rigby went into the locker room up, 16-13, at the half.

The third quarter saw the Tigers get a trey by Jymon Garretson to tie the game at 16, and a basket by Jarek Schetzle put the Tigers up, 18-16, before Tyrel Phillips hit another three-ball to give Rigby the lead. Mountain Home went into the fourth quarter with a narrow one-point lead.

Garrett McKenzie hit a three to start the fourth to push the Tigers' lead to 24-20, but Rigby's second seven-point run of the night put the Trojans up by three with 5:32 left in the game.

Tyler Park hit a basket and free throw with 4:57 left to tie the game at 27. After Rigby went back in front, 29-27, Tyler Park hit two more free throws to tie the game at 29 with 3:39 left.

Rigby's third seven-point run proved to be the charm, as the saying goes, as they shot to a 36-29 lead with 1:01 left.

But back came the Tigers, getting one of two free throws each from Jarek Schetle and Jermaine Smith and a basket by AJ Woodruff to cut the gap to three with 32 seconds left.

After Rigby made one of two free throws to up its lead to 37-33, with 29.5 seconds left, the Tigers blew a scoring opportunity by turning the ball over.

Forced to foul, the Tigers sent Rigby to the free throw line. The Trojans missed both free throws, but a hurried three-point attempt by Mountain Home failed to go down, and Rigby sank two free throws with nine seconds left to ice the game.

Jarek Schetzle led Mountain Home in scoring with 10 points. Jermaine Smith, Tyler Park and Jymon Garretson each scored five points. Marcus Egusquiza and Garrett McKenzie both scored three, and AJ Woodruff added two points for the Tigers.

Mountain Home hot a chilly 26 percent from the field, hitting just three of 15 long balls. The Tigers shot just 53 percent from the free throw line.

Rigby didn't shoot much better from the field, hitting 10 of 30 shots from the field, including three of 11 three-point attempts. The big difference was at the free throw line, where they outscored Mountain Home, connecting on 16 of 25 attempts for 64 percent.

Mountain Home 65, Twin Falls 62

(O.T.)

The Rigby loss put the Tigers in the third-place game Saturday morning at Borah against the Twin Falls Bruins, whose hopes of winning back-to-back state titles was ended by Bishop Kelly in the semi-final.

The fans certainly got their money's worth during the game with 16 lead changes and five ties before Mountain Home prevailed, 65-62, in overtime.

The first quarter saw both teams start slow, trying to convince each other they were still playing for a trophy, even though it was not their first choice of trophies. The lead went back and forth before Mountain Home ended the quarter on a 6-0 run to lead, 15-14.

The lead changed hands a couple of times in the second quarter before Mountain Home built its lead to 30-23 at halftime.

A trey by Garrett McKenzie gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the game, 35-26, with 3:57 left in the third quarter. An 11-5 run by Twin Falls the rest of the quarter brought the Bruins back to within three, 40-37, heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home built its lead back up to seven on a couple of occasions, the last at 46-39, with 3:22 left in the fourth quarter. Twin Falls then went on an eight-point run to take the lead, 47-46, with 1:23 left in regulation.

Tyler Park scored inside to put the Tigers back in the lead, 48-47, with 1:01 left. Twin Falls regained the lead on a basket by Jonah Lutz with 37 seconds left.

Mountain Home called a time out with 24.2 seconds left with 8.8 seconds left. Jermaine Smith was fouled with 6.4 seconds left and hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 49. A final shot attempt by Twin Falls failed, and the game went into overtime.

Mountain Home would then take the lead, and the Bruins would tie it up until Twin Falls scored to go up, 55-53, with 2:03 left in post-regulation play. Jymon Garretson drained a three to put the Tigers back in the lead, 56-55, with 1:48 left. Braden Stutzman answered with a trey to put the Bruins back up, 58-56, with 1:26 left.

But back came Jymon Garretson, scoring a basket and free throw to put Mountain Home back in the lead, 59-58, with 1:15 left. Jarek Schetzle sank two free throws to up the lead to 61-58 with 58.5 seconds left.

Landon Jones sank two free throws with 41.6 seconds left to cut it back to one. Jermaine Smith hit two free throws with 24.2 seconds left to up the Tigers' lead back to three.

Braden Stutzman sank two free throws with 8.5 seconds left to cut it to one again, 63-62. Jymon Garretson was fouled on the inbound pass and sank two free throws with 7.1 left to make it 65-62. Twin Falls had to throw up a hurried three before the buzzer, which missed its mark, and the Tigers prevailed in overtime

"I'm just so proud of these guys; they just kept fighting," Coach Bethel said after he and his team accepted the third-place trophy. "We didn't play the cleanest game, but just like they've shown all year, they play with heart and they play with passion. They just came out and played as a team."

Jarek Schetzle and Jymon Garretson led the Tigers in scoring with 21 and 13 points respectively. Jermaine Smith and Garrett McKenzie both added seven points, Marcus Egusquiza had six, Tyler Park dropped in four, Brion Bethel Jr. finished with three while AJ Woodruff and Christen Riedel both scored two to round out the scoring.

Mountain Home shot 43 percent from the field, including six of 20 three-pointers while connectng on 13 of 16 free throws for 81 percent.

Twin Falls shot 30 percent from the field, hitting five of 24 of its three-balls. The team converted 25 of 33 from the free throw line.

"I couldn't be more proud our community, of our administration, of our coaches," Bethel said. "One guy that's the unsung hero is Doug Belt, my assistant coach. He makes this thing all work. He's a fantastic coach with a wealth of knowledge, and we wouldn't be here without him."

Mountain Home finished the season 19-8 overall.

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