Lady Tigers falter after 10-point lead in loss to Bishop Kelly

After building up a 10-point lead in the third quarter, the Mountain Home Lady Tigers managed just two fourth-quarter points as Bishop Kelly rallied for a 36-29 conference girls basketball win Saturday night at Bishop Kelly.

The lead went back and forth early in the first quarter before Jacci Cristobal's basket put Mountain Home up 9-8 with 3:15 left in the first quarter. The Lady Tigers led 11-8 after a quarter, and were up 18-12 at halftime.

Mountain Home managed to increase its lead in the third quarter to 10 points, 26-16, with 2:15 left in the period, but the Lady Knights rallied to cut it to 27-24 heading into the final quarter.

The Lady Tigers went 0 for 10 from the field in the fourth quarter, and managed just two free throws on 2/7 shooting from the charity stripe, while Bishop Kelly took the lead for good on a basket by Erin Kelly with 4:52 left in the game. A steal and a layup by Kelly moments later pushed the lead to three, 31-28.

Rachel Warila hit one of two free throws with 3:29 left to cut the lead to two, but Abigail Talboy drained a three with 3:11 left to push the lead to 34-29. Mountain Home did not score again.

"That was really disappointing," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger coach Brent Keener after the game, referring to losing the 10-point lead.

"I think a lot of that is obviously depth," the coach added. "We don't have much depth. With seven girls on your roster, it's tough, because we're not in shape to play four quarters, unfortunately."

Hailey Belt and Jacci Cristobal had season highs with seven points each as part of Mountain Home's effort on the court. Keesha Janis-Gibson added five points, Rachel Warila four, and Jessica Liercke and Emilee Schetzle both had three points to round out the scoring.

Mountain Home shot a frigid 20 percent (9/46) from the field, including missing all seven three-point attempts. They shot just 46 percent (11/24) from the free-throw line.

Bishop Kelly also had its problems getting their shots to drop, shooting 24 percent (12/51) from the field, but four of those were treys. The Lady Knights finished the evening hitting just 57 percent (8/14) from the charity stripe.

Mountain Home won the battle of the boards, 39-34, led by Keesha Janis-Gibson with nine, Emilee Schetzle with eight and Hailey Belt with seven.

The loss dropped the Lady Tigers to 0-4 on the season and 0-1 in conference. They hosted Emmett on Tuesday night in conference action and travel to Middleton on Friday night to face the Lady Vikings in conference play.