Tigers' troubles mount in losses to Nampa, Caldwell

The Mountain Home Tigers dropped two more games last week in conference boys basketball, losing home games to Nampa and Caldwell.

Nampa 68, Mountain Home 46

Mountain Home came out flat against Nampa Tuesday night and lost to the Bulldogs 68-4, in conference action at Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers hit just two of 16 (13 percent) field goal attempts in the first quarter and fell behind 17-6 after a quarter.

The Bulldogs doubled the margin in the second quarter to take a 39-17 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Mountain Home managed to cut the lead to 15 late in the third quarter, but trailed 49-33 heading into the final period. They got within 14, at 49-35, early in the fourth quarter, but could come no closer, as Nampa pulled away for a 68-46 win.

"That first half we came out and killed ourselves, we didn't play very good defense, and were a little lazy and gave up a lot of fouls and just a very poor half of defense," said Tiger basketball coach Brion Bethel after the game. "We keep talking about trying to put a complete game together, but we're not there yet."

Cristian Riedel led the Tigers in scoring with 13 points, Jeremy Hopper and Doug Long both added 10. Michael Daniels scored five points, Jose Rodriguez, Jarek Schetzle and Tyler Elliott each had two points while Brandon Reyes and Tyler Senger both scored one.

Mountain Home shot just 25 percent from the field, which included six of 24 three-pointers. They shot 52 percent from the free-throw line. Nampa hit 49 percent from the field, including 5 of 12 trey attempts. They hit 71 percent from the foul line.

Caldwell 47, Mountain Home 44

Friday night's game featured a battle of winless ball clubs, as both the Tigers and Caldwell went into the game 0-11 on the season.

A bad second quarter put the Tigers behind by 10 at halftime and they were unable to regain the lead, losing to the Cougars 47-44.

Mountain Home got off to a good start and led 11-5 with about three minutes left in the first quarter. They then went cold and Caldwell tied the game at 11-11 after a quarter as part of an 11-0 run that saw them take a 16-11 lead before Jarek Schetzle scored to make it 16-13, Caldwell.

The Cougars then outscored Mountain Home 12-5 the rest of the quarter to lead 28-18 at the half.

A 5-0 run to start the third quarter brought the Tigers to within five, but Caldwell shot back out to 10 and led 38-29 heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home rallied in the fourth and tied the game at 44-44 with two free throws by Michael Daniels with 1:41 left in the game.

Henry Fox hit a basket with 1:21 left to put Caldwell up 46-44.

Mountain Home shot and missed, with Caldwell getting the rebound.

The Cougars missed the front end of a one-and-one with 53 seconds left. Mountain Home took the ball down the floor and turned it over.

Caldwell missed another front-end of a one-and-one with 33.7 seconds left. The Tigers took the ball down and missed a shot.

With 23.5 seconds left, Caldwell missed two free throws. Mountain Home rebounded and went down and missed another shot.

With 8.7 seconds left, Dustin Walker hit one of two free throws to give Caldwell a 47-44 lead.

Jeremy Hopper was fouled before the Tigers could get off a three-point attempt, and Hopper missed the front end of a one-and-one with 2.1 seconds left. Caldwell got the rebound and ran the clock out for its first victory of the season.

Cristian Riedel and Jose Rodriguez led Mountain Home's scoring with eight points apiece. Michael Daniels added seven points, Jeremy Hopper added six, Brandon Reyes five, Doug Long four and Daniel Calvert and Jarek Schetzle both scored three.

Mountain Home shot 42 percent from the field, hitting eight of 22 three-pointers. The team connected on just six of 14 free throws. Caldwell shot 44 percent from the field, hitting four of 10 shots beyond the arc. They hit 47 percent from the charity stripe.

Mountain Home fell to 0-12 on the season and 0-8 in conference play. They host Skyview today, Jan. 16, and travel to Bishop Kelly on Friday.