Lady Tigers fall to Caldwell, BK

They ARE getting better, those Mountain Home Lady Tigers!

Earlier in the season, it was generally two bad quarters that did them in. Lately, it's been one, as was the case last week, with conference losses to Caldwell and Bishop Kelly.

Caldwell 41

Mountain Home 38

The Lady Tigers went to Caldwell last Thursday night, hoping to make it a sweep of Caldwell, as they had beaten the Lady Cougars 50-36 back on Dec. 19 in Mountain Home for their first win of the season.

This one started out well enough, with Mountain Home up 12-9 after eight minutes of play. However, a scoring lull -- though not a big one, but a scoring lull nonetheless -- hit the Lady Tigers in the second period, and Caldwell led 23-19 heading into the locker room at halftime.

Mountain Home came out in the third quarter, and made a few runs, but were never able to mount much of a rally. Caldwell led 31-28 heading into the final quarter.

In the fourth, again, neither team was able to break away from the other, with each scoring 10 to make it a 41-38 win for Caldwell.

"We had scoring lulls again, and couldn't get anything really going offensively," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Karen Kohring. "It was very disappointing."

Shelby Wickmark led Mountain Home scoring with eight points. Lauren Hicks added six points, Kim Neely, Ali Hillman, Christa Stanton and Amanda Bitterman each netted five points, Des Walden scored two, and Erica Stanton and Kim Gulley both had one point.

Mountain Home shot just 28 percent (15/54) from the field, including four of nine (44 percent) from three-point range. They were four of eight (50 percent) from the foul line.

Caldwell hit on 12 of 35 shots from the field for 34 percent, but missed all six of their trey attempts. The big difference in the game came at the free-throw line, where the Lady Cougars hit 17 of 25 for 65 percent, outscoring Mountain Home 17-4 at the line. Mountain Home was whistled for 20 fouls to Caldwell's nine.

Bishop Kelly 50

Mountain Home 36

Last Friday night in the friendly confines of Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, the Lady Tigers once again came out like the District Championship was on the line. Although outscored 7-4 in the first quarter, the intensity was there, and the Lady Tigers brought it on in the second period, taking the lead 10-9 on a basket by Lauren Hicks with 5:04 left in the half, and going on an 18-13 advantage at halftime.

Shelby Wickmark scored 15 seconds into the third period, to increase the Lady Tigers' lead to 20-13, but that's when Bishop Kelly came alive, and the Lady Tigers entered a nightmare of a scoring lull. For the next almost seven minutes Mountain Home would go scoreless, until Shelby Wickmark sank two free throws with 53.1 seconds left in the quarter.

The Lady Knights during that time had gone on a 17-0 run, to lead 30-22. Treys by Anna Shumacher and Elyse Whitesides made it 36-22 Bishop Kelly heading to the final quarter.

Ali Hillman scored 10 of her game-high 15 points in the fourth, but the closest the Lady Tigers were able to get was 10, at 42-32, with 3:32 left.

Despite the loss, Coach Kohring saw plenty of positives in the game, especially the first half.

"We had them on the ropes and were up by five at halftime, and everything was clicking defensively. We just did a fantastic job, the girls really came together and played really tough that first half."

Ali Hillman scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds to lead the Lady Tigers. Shelby Wickmark, Kim Neely and Des Walden each netted four points. Kim Gulley scored three, Lauren Hicks, Mallory Rhead and Christa Stanton each scored two.

Mountain Home ended the night shooting 32 percent from the field (15/47), missing all five of their three-point attempts. They were six of 13 (46 percent) from the free-throw line.

Bishop Kelly connected on 19 of 56 shots (34 percent) from the field, including just two of 11 (18 percent) treys.

They hit on 10 of 22 (46 percent) from the foul line.

The Lady Tigers head into their final three games of the regular season standing at 1-6 in conference play, and 1-15 overall. They are home to Kuna tomorrow night, and host Emmett on Saturday, part of a Super Saturday, with girls and boys games scheduled, starting with the sophomore girls (Mountain Home will be playing Bishop Kelly's sophomores again, as Emmett does not have a sophomore girls team) game at 11 a.m. Saturday, with the sophomore boys game to follow at approximately 12:45 p.m., followed by JV girls game at 2:30 p.m., JV boys game at 4:15 p.m., with the varsity girls game set for a 6:15 p.m. tipoff, and the varsity boys at 8 p.m.

The Lady Tigers will be honoring their seniors for Senior Night at tomorrow night's game against Kuna.