Tigers open with win over Wood River

The Mountain Home Tigers opened their boys basketball season with a win last Wednesday night at home against Wood River, but suffered close losses to Boise and Skyview over the weekend.

Mountain Home 51

Wood River 37

Showing an impressive tenacity on defense, the Mountain Home Tigers opened their season on a winning note against a taller Wood River team.

The Tigers shot out to a 6-0 lead before Wood River cut it to 6-5. Mountain Home led 11-7 after a quarter.

An 8-0 run in the second quarter increased the Tigers' lead to 22-13, and from there they shot out to a 30-17 lead at halftime.

The two teams pretty much matched baskets in the second half, as the Wolverines, coached by former College of Southern Idaho coaching phenom Fred Trenkle, were never able to whittle the lead into single digits.

"It's nice to get that first one of the year," said a happy Mountain Home Tiger head basketball coach Tony Kerfoot.

One of the things Coach Kerfoot was hoping to see in the first game was a good defensive effort, and for the most part, he saw it.

"We had a real good defensive effort and I thought we did a pretty decent job on the boards. There were a couple times when we had little mental lapses and didn't box out, and they got the rebounds and scored, so, hopefully, we'll learn from those, but for the biggest part of it, I was happy with the defensive effort."

It was a defensive effort that forced 25 Wood River turnovers in the game. The Tigers controlled the boards on the taller Wood River squad, 35-32, led by Stephen Reinschmidt's eight.

Arturo Garcia led the Tigers in scoring with 15 points, 13 of them coming in the first half, when the Tigers built up their big lead. Brock Zamora was next with nine points, Danny Downen added seven, Stephen Reinschmidt had six, Travis Elliott, five, Matt Maurer added four, Clark Williams scored three, and Keith Yagues had two points.

Boise 65

Mountain Home 62

Mountain Home rallied from a 12 point first half deficit to take the lead in the second half Friday night at Boise High School, but in the end, could not hang on to the lead, dropping the non-conference game by three points.

The Braves rolled to a 15-6 first quarter lead, and stretched it to 20-8 in the first couple minutes of the second quarter, before Mountain Home regrouped and fought back. Arturo Garcia scored 11 of his game-high 26 points in the second period, when the Tigers rallied to tie the game at 24-24 with 2:25 left in the half. It was 33-28 Boise at halftime.

A 7-0 run to start the third quarter gave Mountain Home their first lead of the game, 35-33, before the Braves went back up 37-35, with 5:43 left in the quarter.

A trey by Stephen Reinschmidt -- his second of the quarter -- fueled an 8-0 Tiger run that put Mountain Home up 43-37, with 4:31 remaining in the period.

Robert McCall had two three-pointers in a 12-0 Boise run that put the Braves up 49-43, with 2:28 left in the quarter.

Arturo Garcia scored the next five points to put the Tigers within one, 49-48. Boise led 51-48 heading into the final quarter.

Mountain Home caught the Braves at 55-55, and took the lead on a Keith Yagues basket with 3:47 left.

After the Braves tied it back up, Arturo Garcia put the Tigers up, 59-57.

Justin Bridges scored to tie it at 59-59, but a basket by Mark Fisher regained the lead for the Tigers, with 3:07 left.

Chad Ariss was fouled on a three-point attempt, and made all three free throws to give Boise the lead 62-61, with 2:52 left. Another basket by Justin Bridges made it, 64-61, Boise, with 2:15 left.

Travis Elliott and Jack Gordon traded free throws, to make it 65-62 with 48 seconds left.

Mountain Home then played for a three-pointer to tie, missed, and got the ball on a jump ball, with 16.7 seconds left.

After a Tiger timeout, Arturo Garcia, who hit three treys on the night, but all in the first half, attempted a three-pointer, missed, but got the rebound, and stepped behind the line and fired again, and again the shot wouldn't drop, but the ball went out of bounds off Boise. It was Mountain Home ball with 01.3 seconds left.

This time Brock Zamora got the shot off at the buzzer, but to no avail, the Braves coming up with a 65-62 victory on their home court.

Coach Kerfoot would have liked to come away with the win Friday night, but was impressed with the way his team fought back and never gave up.

"We had chances to come back and tie it at the end, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I thought we battled extremely well and put forth a great deal of effort into it."

Arturo Garcia's 26 points tied his career high.

Stephen Reinschmidt had a career high 12 points for the Tigers at Boise. Travis Elliott had a career high eight points, Keith Yagues added seven, Brock Zamora, five, and Mark Fisher, four.

Skyview 64

Mountain Home 63

The Tigers hosted Skyview Saturday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, and for the second night in a row, Mountain Home showed a never-give-up attitude that once again put them with an opportunity to win the ballgame at the end.

Mountain Home led early, 4-0, but Skyview came back to go ahead 5-4. From there, the two teams traded baskets, until an 18-6 run put the Hawks up 27-16 after a quarter.

The Tigers fought back to within three, at 29-26, with 3:47 left in the first half, but Skyview scored the final six points of the half to go into the locker room at halftime with a 35-26 lead.

Mountain Home got within three again in the third quarter, 39-36, but a 13-4 spurt by the Hawks put them up 52-40 heading into the final quarter.

The two teams traded baskets for about half the quarter, before a 14-6 Tiger run brought them within four, 63-59, with less than a minute left.

Brock Zamora was fouled as he drained a trey. He sank the free throw for a rare four-point play, and the Tigers had tied it at 63-63, with 38.7 seconds left.

Skyview then played for the last shot, and a Tiger foul sent Louie Beech to the free throw line to shoot two, with 04.9 seconds left.

The 6' 2" sophomore clanked in the first one, to put the Hawks up 64-63. The second one was not good, and Brock Zamora was fouled on the rebound attempt, with four seconds left.

Zamora, a 6' 2" junior who led the Tigers with 19 points on the night, went to the line to shoot the one- and-one. His free throw rimmed out, and Mountain Home could not contain the rebound, the ball going out of bounds to Skyview, with 01.4 seconds left.

The Hawks were able to run out the clock on the inbounds play, escaping with a 64-63 win over Mountain Home.

Once again, Coach Kerfoot was pleased with what he saw from his scrappy team.

"Several times there it looked like those guys were going to blow us away. They're a very, very good basketball team, but once again, I thought we reached a little deeper and found a way to get back in it and got a pretty good spurt, and the next thing you know, we've got a chance to win it again."

Brock Zamora led the Tigers with a season-high 19 points. Stephen Reinschmidt also had a new season and career-high 16 points. Arturo Garcia scored 14 before fouling out with 5:48 left in the ball game. Travis Elliott had a new season and career-high, with nine points. Clark Williams scored three points, and Keith Yagues netted two.

The Tigers shot 51 percent (26 of 45) inside the arc, but managed only two of 13 (15 percent) three-pointers.

They connected on five of eight (63 percent) free throws.

Skyview made only two of 14 (14 percent) treys, and were 22 of 46 (48 percent) inside the arc, and hit 14 of 25 (56 percent) from the foul line.

The Tigers out rebounded Skyview, 33-31, led by Stephen Reinschmidt's 8 rebounds.

Mountain Home hosted Centennial last (Tuesday) night, and hosts the Meridian Warriors tomorrow (Thursday) night.