Nampa Bulldogs bite Tiger freshmen

The 2009 portion of the ninth-grade boys basketball season started off the same as 2008 ended with a slow start and great finish but again a loss in the score column as the team lost to the Nampa Bulldogs on Friday, 35-28.

The Bulldogs jumped out early as five players scored in the first quarter to help the Dawgs jump to an 11-2 first-quarter lead.

The young Tigers did slow down the Dawgs in the second quarter by holding them to nine points but they only managed six themselves as the Bulldogs led 20-8 going into halftime.

In the third quarter the teams battled even as Nampa scored seven points and the Tigers six but the Dawgs still led 27-14 going into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter it was all Tigers, who outscored the Dawgs 14-4 but it was too little too late as the Bulldogs held on for the victory.

" I'm not getting the boys ready to play" said head coach Brian English.

"I have to change some things up in how we start games to get these boys ready to play. What that is I don't really know, but we have a lot of talent here and we just need to learn to play together and trust each other."

Chaise Hopkins led the team in scoring with seven points. Jared Day and Luke Filipovich each had six points. Derek Doerr had four points, Tyler Knauth and Jake Hennessey each had two points and Garrett Burton rounded out the scoring with one point.

Filipovich led the team with seven rebounds.

The team has three games this week. On Tuesday they hosted Columbia. On Wednesday the travel to Caldwell, and on Friday they host Skyview. Games times are at 6:30 p.m.