Tigers open district against top-seeded Skyview

The Mountain Home Tigers hope the post season will be better than the regular season, but they have their work cut out for them in their district tournament opener against top-seeded Skyview.

The Tigers saw another two games slip away from them last week as they closed out their regular season with losses to Emmett and Vallivue.

Emmett Huskies 38

Mountain Home 37

Chalk up another one that got away from the Mountain Home Tigers last Tuesday when they came up short, 38-37, to the Huskies in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers grabbed their first lead of the game on a trey by Robert Moss with 35 seconds left in the first quarter to take a 9-6 lead into the second period. They stretched their lead to 13-6 and led 19-13 with 2:35 left in the quarter.

Mountain Home then went scoreless the rest of the period and Emmett scrapped their way to a 20-19 halftime lead.

The Tigers regained the lead 26-24 on a basket by David Anderson with 3:05 left in the third, and were up 32-30 heading into the fourth quarter.

A trey by Jake Lyter with six minutes left gave Emmett the lead, 33-32, and after each unsuccessful possession by Mountain Home, the Huskies were content to milk the clock. Finally, with 2:30 left, Lyter was fouled and sank two free throws to make it 35-32 Emmett.

Tyler Hicks scored to bring the Tigers within one, 35-34, with 2:10 left. After the Huskies turned the ball over, Mountain Home went down and missed the shot, Emmett rebounding.

Jake Lyter was fouled, and missed the front end of a one-and one, but the rebound wound up in Emmett's hands. Curtis Vickery was fouled with 53 seconds left and sank two free throws to push the lead back to three, 37-34.

A basket and a free throw by Eric Gardzina tied the game at 37-37 with 39 seconds left.

Nick Havda was fouled with 29 seconds left and hit one of two free throws to put Emmett up 38-37.

The Tigers came down and worked the ball in, and on an inbounds play under the basket, the inbounds pass to Tyler Hicks, cutting towards the basket, went off him out of bounds, turning the ball over to Emmett with 4.5 seconds left.

Emmett's Nick Hovda was fouled with 2.7 seconds left, and missed two free throws. The Tigers got the rebound, but were unable to get a shot off before the buzzer sounded, Emmett leaving with a 38-37 win.

"We had our opportunities to win it, but we just didn't capitalize on them," said Tiger coach Tony Kerfoot. "When we did get the lead, we never got very far ahead, and we need to stretch those out. Towards the end of the first half, we had a chance to go up a little bit, but we started breaking down and we just didn't function well at all there for a little bit.

"We had some adversity -- a couple guys got in foul trouble and I didn't want to chance them picking up their third, so I kept them out, and we didn't make some very good adjustments and turned the ball over several times and they came back and got the lead right before halftime.

"In the second half, we got the lead back, but didn't go very far ahead. Give some credit to Emmett, they hung in there. We put them on the (free throw) line too many times."

Emmett went to the free-throw line 20 times and converted 14 of them (70 percent). The Tigers only went to the foul line once all night.

"I know we were bumped more than that!" said Coach Kerfoot with a chuckle.

Tyler Hicks led the Tigers in scoring with 12 points. Eric Gardzina added seven points, Travis Eikeness scored six, Jarrod Roberson, five, David Anderson, four, and Robert Moss, three.

Mountain Home connected on four of 18 (22 percent) treys, while Emmett made four of 19 (21 percent).

The Tigers hit 38 percent (12/32) of their shots inside the arc, Emmett shot just 26 percent (6/23). The difference in the game came at the foul line, where Emmett went 19 more times than the Tigers did, outscoring Mountain Home 14-1.

Mountain Home won the battle of the boards, 32-25, led by Eric Gardzina with 12.

Vallivue 72

Mountain Home 57

Much of this season for the Tigers has seemed to be from the same script -- the Tigers play a good first half, maybe even have the lead most of the half, then someone on the opposing team gets hot from outside in the second half, and the rest is history -- another loss for the Tigers.

Friday night's regular season final at Vallivue was much the same. The Tigers fell behind 5-0 early, but came back and fought to a 10-10 tie after a quarter.

Mountain Home went on a 7-0 run midway through the second period to take a 21-16 lead, and stretched it to 34-24, before the Falcons shaved it to 34-29 at halftime.

Then came the third quarter, and Corey Barnes, who hit five treys on the night, hit two straight in the first minute of the period to give Vallivue the lead, 35-34. The lead went back and forth until Barnes hits his third trey of the quarter that put Vallivue up for good, 43-41.

The Falcons led 49-46 heading into the final quarter.

A trey by Kalen Hruza started a 13-0 run by Vallivue, as the Falcons built up a 62-47 lead with 4:35 left.

Two baskets by David Anderson and two treys by Jarrod Roberson brought the Tigers back within nine, 66-57, with 2:08 left, but Corey Barnes hit his fifth trey, and Zac Snoderly closed out the night's scoring with a trey to make it a 72-57 final.

"I thought we came out and we were ready to play, which, after the past couple practices after the Emmett loss, I was a little unsure of what to expect, so I was very happy," said Coach Kerfoot after the game.

"We were right where we wanted to be through the first half, and even the third quarter, but in the third quarter we let down a little bit, and when it went, it went. It was just like we hit a big wall. I don't know what it is.

"I knew coming in here that these guys could shoot in their own gym and I still elected to play a zone on them. I told the kids our game plan was to play a zone on them, but just because we were playing zone doesn't mean we sit back and let them shoot. We just had lapses there where we didn't get to the shooters, but it was working for a big part of the night. It was just a small portion of the night that it didn't work, but it added up quick."

Jarrod Roberson led the Tigers in scoring with 22 points. Robert Moss added 10 points -- all coming in the second period, Eric Gardzina and Travis Eikeness both scored eight points, Jacob Monasterio scored five, and David Anderson four.

The Tigers hit four of 16 (25 percent) three-point shots, Vallivue made 10 of 27 (37 percent). Mountain Home shot 33 percent (15/45) inside the arc, Vallivue, 42 percent (14/33). The Tigers shot 55 percent (11/20) from the free-throw line, Vallivue shot 56 percent (14/25).

Mountain Home finished the regular season 1-13 in conference play, and 4-16 overall. They opened the District III 4A boys basketball tournament at Skyview last night against the top-seeded Skyview Hawks.

Coach Kerfoot hoped for the best going into the district tourney.

"The best thing I can say right now is everybody's 0-0, and that's the way we've got to look at it. That changes right now. It's a new start, a new beginning, and hopefully, we've learned from things that have gone on in the regular season, because we have played some good basketball at times. We just don't maintain it very well, and we haven't eliminated all the bad stuff yet.

"There's two sides of going through a tournament. There's two roads that lead to state, and I say we've got nothing to lose in the first game. We just go out and give it everything we've got, and if it's not enough, let's go the back way. We've just got to pick it up and be positive and do the best that we can do."

Other first round action last night saw number two seed Kuna hosting seven seed Caldwell, number three seed Bishop Kelly hosting six-seeded Emmett, and number four seed Nampa hosting number five seed Vallivue.

Second round action resumes Saturday night, with losers playing losers and winners playing winners, with the highest seeds hosting. Mountain Home will play either at Nampa or Vallivue Saturday night at 7 p.m. Action next week will all be played at Kuna.