Tigers can't score, drop opening pair

The Mountain Home Tigers dropped their first two boys basketball games of the season last week.

Timberline 61

Mtn. Home 25

Turnovers and poor shooting plagued the Mountain Home Tigers in their season opening boys basketball game at home last Tuesday night against Timberline as they lost 61-25.

Timberline shot to to a 20-6, first quarter lead and stretched it to 37-14 at the half. It was 56-20, Timberline, heading into the fourth quarter, and with the clock moving continuously in the final quarter, the game ended, 61-25, Timberline.

"It was a rough opening," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot of the Timberline game. "I thought we were a little shell-shocked with their athleticism, their quickness and their strength, and it got us in a bad start and kind of kept falling in that procedure. It seemed like we were always a step late, and a little bit too short on the power end of it. It was a rough night."

Cody Ramos came off the bench to lead the Tigers with seven points. Colton Zamora scored five, Tyler Wright had four, Brock Morris three, Trevor Woodruff and Deion Brown both had two and Damion Soliz had one point.

Mtn. View 36

Mtn. Home 32

The Tigers traveled to Mountain View in Meridian last Wednesday night, and although they still struggled offensively, defensively they played well, coming up short, 36-32.

Mountain Home trailed 4-3 after a quarter and took the lead, 7-6, on a basket by Trevor Woodruff with 5:49 left in the first half, but then went cold and trailed 17-10 at the half.

The third quarter saw the Mavericks stretch their lead to 10 points on a couple of occasions. They led the Tigers 26-17 heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home battled tough in the fourth, cutting the lead to 33-30 with 1:18 left in the game, but could come no closer, the Mavericks hanging on for a 36-32 win.

"I thought it was a lot better tonight," said Coach Kerfoot in radio comments after the game. "We still struggled to score -- it was very low scoring -- but I thought we got into our defensive schemes and executed those much better tonight. We even ran some that we didn't plan on, especially in that fourth quarter, and that's stuff that we're accustomed to. The kids -- most of them played all summer -- we've done stuff like that, so they know it, even though we haven't hit it in practice. Tonight was a little bit better."

Trevor Woodruff led the Tigers with 12 points, Anthony Castillo added six, David Bitrick scored four, Cody Ramos and Colton Zamora both had three points and Brock Morris and Deion Brown each had two points.

The Tigers hosted Jerome last night, and open SIC 4A conference play tomorrow night at home against Bishop Kelly.