Tigers score wins over Borah, Jerome

Watch out SIC 4A coaches! The Mountain Home Tigers are on the loose. They may have been picked by conference coaches to finish seventh out of eight teams, but that means nothing to this year's group of Tigers who are gaining confidence with each game.

They matched last year's win total last week with wins over Jerome and Borah.

Mountain Home 60

Jerome 58

This one looked like a blowout in the making last Wednesday night as the Tigers shot out to a 39-24 halftime advantage, but Jerome, which had battled back from 12 points down at Century its last time out to force overtime and eventually win, 88-86 in triple overtime, was not going to give up easily.

After David Anderson's basket made it 43-26 Mountain Home early in the third period, the visiting Tigers from Jerome went on a 16-2 run to come within three, 45-42, with 1:14 left in the quarter.

Mountain Home went into the fourth period up, 49-44.

A basket by Troy Williams stretched the lead to 51-44 to start the fourth, but Jerome came back to within one, 51-50. Travis Eikeness scored to make it 53-50, with 4:22 left, but Jerome fought back, and back-to-back baskets by Brett Boesiger gave Jerome its first lead of the game, 55-53, with 3:28 left.

Jarrod Roberson tied it at 55-55, with a basket with 2:02 left, and two free throws by Robert Moss made it 57-55, Mountain Home, with 1:50 left.

Jerome managed to tie it back up, 57-57, on a basket by Mike Norris, but David Anderson hit a trey from the corner to put Mountain Home up, 60-57, with 24 seconds left.

Mike Norris made one of two free throws with 17.9 seconds left to cut the margin to 60-58. Jerome got the ball back off a turnover, and had a chance to tie or win, but could not score, and the local Tigers prevailed, 60-58.

"That was scary!" said a happy Mountain Home Tiger head basketball coach Tony Kerfoot, in radio comments after the game.

"The kids played a good first half, but second half, we didn't play well with the lead. I guess I'm going to have to tell them at halftime we've got to play like we're down 20 or something. I think we played lazy the second half and Jerome made a great comeback and made it a close ball game, and then it got a little wild at the end!"

Jarrod Roberson led the Tigers in scoring with a season-high 30 points, 24 of them in the first half. David Anderson hit for nine points, Robert Moss, six, Eric Gardzina, five, Tyler Hicks, four, Troy Williams, Jacob Monasterio and Travis Eikeness each ended with two points.

Mountain Home hit four of 13 (31 percent) three-pointers shot 42 percent (20/48) inside the arc, and 67 percent (8/12) from the free-throw line.

Jerome connected on just one of 17 (6 percent) three-point attempts, and shot 38 percent (20/53) inside, and 60 percent (15/25) fro the foul line.

Mountain Home 53

Borah Lions 51

It has been a while since Mountain Home last beat the Borah Lions in boys basketball, but the Tigers continued their exciting play Friday night at Borah, and held off the Lions, 53-51.

The lead changed hands five times in the first period, with Mountain taking a 16-14 lead in the second quarter.

The fierce defensive battle continued in the second quarter, with Mountain Home increasing their led to 28-21, at halftime.

The Lions fought back to tie the game at 34-34, with about three minutes left in the third period. They took their first and only lead of the game a couple minutes later, on a basket by Kevin Frendt, but Robert Moss scored in the final three seconds to put the Tigers back in the lead, 38-37, heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home stretched their lead back out to five points on a couple occasions, the latest at 48-43, with 3:40 left.

Back came the Lions to tie the game at 49-49, on two free throws by Kevin Frendt, with 1:39 left.

Two free throws by Tyler Hicks with 31.9 seconds left gave Mountain Home the lead, 51-49, but a basket by Terriel Thomas tied the game at 51-51, with 12 seconds left.

A 12-footer by Travis Eikeness on the baseline put Mountain Home up, 53-51, and Borah called time out with 3.4 seconds left to play for the last shot.

The throw-in to mid-court was deflected, but Skylar Montoya managed to come up with it somehow, and threw up a three-point attempt that missed badly, but Kevin Frendt got the rebound, but his hurried shot was off the mark, and the Tigers held on for the win.

The Tiger win was all the more remarkable in the fact that they did it without Jarrod Roberson who suffered a fracture in his shooting arm in the third quarter of Wednesday night's win over Jerome. Coach Kerfoot was proud of the way his guys stepped up.

"The kids stepped up. We did it the way we talked about -- everybody picked it up a little bit and the team played great team basketball! It was an excellent defensive effort. Anytime you come over here and hold Borah to 51 points on their place, you've worked hard. The kids are doing an excellent job and working hard, and the biggest thing and the best thing, is they're starting to believe in what we're doing, and that's going to make us stronger down the road."

Robert Moss led the Tigers with 19 points, Jacob Monasterio had a season high 10 points. David Anderson scored eight, Travis Eikeness, six, Tyler Hicks and Troy Williams both added four points, and David Armstrong had two points.

Mountain Home connected on four of 14 (29 percent) treys, shot 44 percent (17/39) inside the arc, and made seven of nine (78 percent) on free throws.

Borah shot just 16 percent (3/19) on three-point attempts, but hit 45 percent (17/38) inside, and hit just 57 percent (8/14) from the foul line.

Borah won the battle on the boards, 36-25. Tyler Hicks and Eric Gardzina both brought down six rebounds to lead Mountain Home.

The Tigers, 3-0 to date, have three games at home this week.

They hosted Capital last night, host Centennial tomorrow night, and open their SIC 4A conference schedule Friday night at home against Nampa.

"I like that we're going into those games with some momentum," said Coach Kerfoot. "I think the kids are going to look forward to playing a full game at home, because they know they only played a half a game the other night ( against Jerome), and they've got a little win streak on them, and it should be fun."