Tigers bow out in two games at district

The Mountain Home Tigers saw their boys basketball season end in two games at the District III 4A basketball tournament with losses to Nampa and Kuna.

Nampa 58

Tigers 37

Looking at the final score one would find it hard to believe that with less than 90 seconds left in the first half, Mountain Home led the Bulldogs 24-12.

With a defense designed to keep the ball out of the hands of Nampa's 6' 9" center Trevor Morris, the Tigers had Nampa frustrated and searching for answers.

The Bulldogs found the answers in the second half, however, as Morris scored 16 of his 20 points to lead Nampa to the 58-37 win last Tuesday night at Nampa.

"That (the great first half) was something we built to all season long," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot. "We kind of picked up the intensity at just the right time.

"We just didn't have an answer for Morris when Morris decided that it didn't matter how many guys were on him, he was going to catch it and score on us, and we didn't have an answer.

"That first half we were trying to show a lot of help on him, and stuff like that, and that kept them from getting it in there. But I think something in their halftime talk said 'I don't care how many guys he's got on him, give him the ball!' He's 6' 9", probably 240-250, and good, and we didn't have an answer for that."

After that 24-12 lead, the Bulldogs scored the final seven points of the half to make it 24-19, Mountain Home, at the half.

Trevor Morris scored Nampa's first eight points of the third quarter, and scored 12 in the period, as the Bulldogs built up a 39-29 lead.

The Bulldogs added 21 points in the final quarter to make it a 58-37 final.

"We were up 24-12 at one time in that game, and I'm thinking why didn't you pull it out and try to run it down?" said Coach Kerfoot. "I don't know. That's an awfully long time to try and stretch it out. I don't know how that would have worked, but I know that's been haunting me."

Robert Moss led the Tigers with 16 points. Nick Barrie added eight points, Nick O'Briant, six, Brandon Doble, three, Kyle Kerfoot and Chris Rau, two each.

Kuna 49

Tigers 46

The Nampa loss put the Tigers at Kuna on Saturday night in a loser out game, as the Kavemen had lost in the first round at Skyview. Chris Molck scored in the final four seconds to give the Kavemen the win.

The first quarter went back and forth, with Kyle Kerfoot's trey at the buzzer giving the Tigers a 16-13 lead after one.

Mountain Home managed just five points in the second quarter, as the Kavemen scored 14 to take a 27-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The third quarter saw Mountain Home fall down by as many as nine, and trail 37-30 heading into the fourth.

After the teams traded baskets to start the final period, Mountain Home went on a 9-0 run to take a 41-39 lead, with 4:03 left. Kuna came back to go up 46-42, with 2:06 left.

Two free throws by Robert Moss cut the margin to 46-44 with 1:47 left. Moss scored with 48 seconds left to tie the game at 46-46.

Kuna worked the clock down for the final shot, with Kirk Miller driving inside and passing off to Chad Molck, who scored with 3.9 seconds left to make it 48-46, Kuna.

The Tigers called a time out, but on the inbounds pass was stolen by Paul Kloepfer, who was fouled, and sank the first free throw to make it 49-46, with 1.9 seconds left. He missed the second free throw but Chad Molck got the rebound and the clock ran out the season on the Mountain Home Tigers, 49-46.

"I thought we played our hearts out tonight," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "It's one of those games where we make a few mistakes here and there that hurt us. We were a little out of control a time or two, and there were spots in there I wished we had back. Between turnovers and free throws, that's something that's plagued us all season. I thought down the stretch we'd been shooting better at the free-throw line, and also the turnover thing has gone down, but tonight they went up."

Brandon Doble led the Tigers in scoring with 11 points, Robert Moss and Nick O'Briant both added 10. Kyle Kerfoot scored nine, and Jake Posey had six.

Coach Kerfoot loses five seniors to this year's squad that finished 5-17 overall, but he believes the future looks bright for Tiger basketball.

"That's the way I think. I thought we had a very solid and developing JV squad, and there are four returners off this team. There are two more on the JV that had about eight to 10 games of varsity experience this year, so there's six guys with varsity experience that will be back next year.

"I thought we had a sophomore team that had a very successful season, and our ninth grade team had a very successful season, so I definitely think there are some good things to come, and hopefully we'll have more numbers. That seemed to be a little bit of the problem this year, especially in our senior class. I thought our numbers were low and we lost one senior early in the year that was kind of a surprise, and I thought that was a letdown to a lot of the kids early, and we had to struggle to kind of overcome that, and it took us a long time to do, but I think, eventually, we did, but it did take awhile, and I think that took a little heart away from some of the other seniors, too."