Lady Tigers roar past Cougars

The Lady Cougars played stubborn hosts Friday night, but Mountain Home finally pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 40-27 SIC 4A conference girls basketball win at Caldwell.

Mountain Home took their first lead of the game, 5-2, midway through the first quarter on a trey by Erica Stanton. They never trailed the rest of the way, but Caldwell refused to go away.

Mountain Home led 9-8 after a quarter and were up 17-13 at the half. It was 27-20 Lady Tigers, after three.

Just when it looked like Mountain Home was going to put the Lady Cougars away, back they came, cutting the Mountain Home lead to two, 27-25, with 6:10 left.

Erica Stanton got a basket and free throw to increase the lead to 30-25, and hit two more free throws with 3:42 to go to up the lead to 32-25.

Amanda Strong scored with 2:30 to go to cut the margin to 32-27, but it would be the last score for Caldwell, as the Lady Tigers pulled away for a 40-27 win.

"I was afraid of this game, to be honest with you," said Mountain Home girls basketball coach Brian English in radio comments after the game.

"We beat them by 18 the first time and you come into their gym, and it's tough to play here and it's got very bad shooting angles because of the size of the gym, so this game worried me, but you know, not only did the girls play tough, but the girls on the bench came off and did a great job, too, and they helped a lot. They had to come off the bench and give me minutes on the floor, and they did and played really good defense and really helped us out."

Marquina Gilliam and Erica Stanton both scored in double figures for Mountain Home. Gilliam scored 15, Stanton added 14.

Jessica Egusquiza netted five points, Ali Hillman added three, Lisa Kellerman, two, and Sammy Dodge scored one.

Mountain Home hit just one of 13 (8 percent) three-point shots, but shot 45 percent (10/22) inside the circle. They shot 63 percent (17/27) from the free throw line, including nine of 11 (82 percent) in the fourth quarter.

The win improved Mountain Home to 6-3 in league play, and 7-8 overall. They hosted Kuna last night (Tuesday) night, host Skyview tomorrow (Thursday) night, and travel to Bishop Kelly on Saturday night.