Lady Tigers end season with 2 losses heading into district

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers closed out their regular season girls basketball schedule last week with losses to Emmett and Bishop Kelly.

Emmett 58

Mtn. Home 49

Foul trouble caught up with the Mountain Home Lady Tigers last Tuesday night at Emmett as the Lady Huskies pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 58-49 win.

The first quarter ended in a 9-9 tie, with Mountain Home up 23-19 at halftime, and 39-36 heading into the fourth quarter. That's when fouls caught up with the Lady Tigers, as they lost three players to fouls, and Emmett outscored them, 22-10, for a 58-49 win.

"It was a difficult game to say the least," said Mountain Home coach Brent Keener.

"We had all three of my posts foul out. They shot 25 free throws to our three in the second half, and I thought we lost our composure a little, so it was a tough loss, definitely."

Francesca Hale and Hannah Zamora both scored 11 points to lead Mountain Home in scoring. For Zamora, it was a new season high.

Emily Moranda scored eight points, Shelby Posey, seven, and Chantell Crane, six, and all three fouled out. Angie Rios added four points and Brandie Riggs put in two points.

Middleton 62

Mtn. Home 50

The Lady Tigers fell behind again early against Middleton, but put on a great fourth quarter rally to come back and make a game of it before falling 62-50 last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The points came few and far between for Mountain Home, who honored four seniors on Senior Night prior to the game. They fell behind 23-6 and then Middleton extended their lead in the second quarter to 47-16 at the half.

Middleton pushed their lead over 30 a couple times in the third quarter, and led 55-28 heading into the final quarter.

Brandie Riggs led a fourth quarter rally by the Lady Tigers, scoring nine of her team-high 16 points in the final quarter as Mountain Home started the quarter on a 15-0 run before Middleton finally hit a free throw with 1:54 left in the game.

Four straight points by Emily Moranda whittled the lead down to nine points, 56-47, with under a minute to go.

After missing their first four free throws in the fourth quarter, Middleton finally regained their shooting eye at the line, sinking their last six free throws to make it a 62-50 final.

"That was a great fourth quarter," sid Coach Keener after the game.

"It was nice to see the girls didn't give up, because after that first half, it'd be pretty easy to do. They (Middleton) put a clinic on that first half, scoring 47 points -- that's a game's worth right there!"

Middleton shot 80 per cent from the free throw line, hitting 32 of 40 attempts. Mountain Home went to the line just 13 times and canned nine for 69 percent.

"They hit a ton of free throws," said Coach Keener, " and I didn't think it was just the officiating. I wasn't obviously pleased with the officiating in the first half, but we sent them to the line 28 times the first half, and we didn't move our feet on defense, we were standing still and trying to reach and body check."

Brandie Riggs led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 16 points, Emily Moranda added 12 and Shelby Posey, 11. Chantell Crane scored four points, Angie Rios, three, and Francesca Hale and Hannah Zamora both had two points.

The Lady Tigers finished the regular season 10-10 overall, and 8-6 in league play, tying for third with Skyview. Since they split with the Lady Hawks, they flipped a coin, and Mountain Home earned the number three seed. They open District III 4A play tonight at home against six-seeded Nampa, a team the Lady Tigers swept, winning 47-32 early in the season at Nampa, and 51-31 at home.

Other first-round action tonight has top-seeded Middleton taking on Kuna, number four seed Skyview hosting fifth seeded Emmett, and number two seed Bishop Kelly hosting Columbia. The tourney resumes Saturday night with winners facing winners and losers taking on losers at the higher seeds. Consolation bracket semi-finals are Feb. 6 at Columbia, with the third-place and championship games on Feb. 8 at Columbia.

The top three teams advance to state, which is Feb. 14-16 at Timberline High School in Boise.