Tigers struggle during losses to Huskies, Wildcats

The Mountain Home Tigers had their moments, but continue to struggle at putting together a full game, and the results were losses to Emmett and Columbia last week.

Emmett 65, Tigers 57

The Mountain Home Tigers had another bad third quarter and the result was a 65-57 loss to the Emmett Huskies last Wednesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers fell behind by ten points early in the first quarter, but battled back to within five, 18-13, heading into the second. They narrowed the margin to four early in the second and trailed 31-25 at the half.

Emmett stretched its lead to 42-26 midway through the third quarter before the Tigers cut it to 42-32. The Huskies then went on a 7-1 run to end the quarter and go up 49-34 heading into the final quarter.

Emmett's biggest lead was 55-38, early in the fourth, before the Tigers went on a 19-6 run to come back within four, 61-57, with 47 seconds left.

Mountain Home had chances to cut the lead even more but turned the ball over two straight times and the Huskies hit four of six free throws to make it a 65-57 final.

"We're starting to sound like a broken record -- a scratched record -- but I tell you what, that third quarter has become our nemesis, it gets us every game so far," said Tigers head coach Brion Bethel. "We've got to learn how to take care of the ball better."

Cristian Riedel and Doug Long led the Tigers in scoring with 16 and 12 points respectively. Michael Daniels added nine, Brandon Reyes had seven points, all in the fourth quarter, Jeremy Hopper and Tyler Senger both scored five, Devin Wright scored two points before leaving with an ankle injury early in the first quarter, and Jose Rodriguez added one point.

The Tigers, scoring their season best 57 points, shot 43 percent from the field, including 10 of 20 beyond the arc. They hit nine of 17 from the free-throw line.

Emmett also shot 43 percent from the field, and also made 50 percent of its three-point attempts.

They went to the free-throw line 26 times, converting on 15 of them for 58 percent.

Mountain Home had a sight edge on the boards, 29-23, led by Tyler Senger, who brought down six rebounds.

Columbia 58, Mountain Home 44

Columbia outscored the Tigers 36-15 in the first and fourth quarters to help them down Mountain Home 58-44 Friday night at Columbia.

Mountain Home started slow and trailed 15-5 after a quarter. The Tigers battled back in the second quarter and managed to tie the game at 21-21 before the Wildcats went on an 8-3 run to go up 29-24 at halftime.

The Tigers managed to cut the lead to one in the third quarter but were down 37-34 heading into the fourth. Columbia outscored the Tigers 21-10, hitting 13 free throws in the fourth quarter to pull away for the 58-44 win.

"It's one of those games where you get better or you get worse every night, and this was one of those games we took a step back," Coach Bethel said after the game. "The guys worked hard, but we came out flat from the get-go and we didn't block out very well, and we didn't pass very well to start with.

"We tried to find the middle, but at the same time, you can't make basic mistakes and expect to win," the coach added. "One of the things we really pride ourselves on is transition defense, and we didn't do that very well tonight. We did better in the second half, but we didn't do a very good job with our transition defense."

Cristian Riedel led the Tigers in scoring with 15 points on five of ten shooting on three-pointers. Jeremy Hopper added eight points and handed out five assists and had six steals. Doug Long and Tyler Elliott both scored five points, Mike Daniels had four, Tyler Senger three and Joe Rodriguez and Jarek Schetzle both added two points.

For the 6-foot five-inch sophomore Schetzle, it was his first varsity action since being moved up from the JV squad after Devin Wright sprained his ankle in Wednesday night's Emmett game.

"I was very proud," said Coach Bethel of the effort by Schetzle in his first varsity effort against Columbia's big 6-foot, 7-inch and 6-foot, six-inch players. "I couldn't have asked more for the big guy. He came in and did everything I asked him to do, and not having played a varsity game, to come in and play the kind of minutes he played, I could not be more proud of that guy. He's my bright spot for the evening, so I was very excited to see that."

Mountain Home shot just 25 percent from the field, hitting 10 of 32 treys. The Tigers only went to the foul line six times, converting only two for 33 percent.

Columbia hit 48 percent of their shots, making one of four three-pointers. They hit 56 percent of their free throws.

The taller Wildcats controlled the boards, 53-29. Jarek Schetzle and Cristian Riedel both brought down five rebounds to lead Mountain Home.

The Tigers drop to 0-6 in conference and 0-10 on the season. They hosted Nampa Tuesday night and host Caldwell on Friday night.

"Caldwell's kind of struggling like we are, so it should be interesting," said Coach Bethel of the Caldwell game.