Lady Tigers split season openers

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers came away with a split of their games last week, losing at Jerome but winning at Emmett.

Jerome 46

Mtn. Home 29

Mountain Home fell behind in the first quarter when they lost post player Shelby Posey to an ankle injury last Tuesday night at Jerome and never were able to overcome the deficit, losing 46-29.

Mountain Home trailed 14-5 after a quarter and 22-9 at half.

A 20-point third quarter for Jerome put the game out of reach, as they built their lead to 42-18, after three.

"We lost Shelby in the first quarter, really early, and that made it tough the rest of the night," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Brent Keener. "We couldn't score with the basketball, and when you can't score, you're not going to have much of a chance of winning."

Dakota Barrie led the Mountain Home scoring with eight points. Rachel Warila added seven, Jessica Liercke four, Blas Lord and Charde Huntington both scored three and Arlene Futch and Amanda Osborn both had two points.

Lady Tigers 62

Emmett 43

Mountain Home returned to the win column Thursday night at Emmett, holding off the scrappy Lady Huskies 62-43.

The Lady Tigers shot out to an 8-0 lead and led 18-8 after a quarter.

Emmett battled back within three, 21-18, midway through the second quarter, but Arlene Futch sparked a Mountain Home rally, scoring eight points the rest of the quarter as the Lady Tigers pushed the lead back to 10, 35-25, at the half.

Emmett scored the first five points of the third quarter to come back within in five, 35-30, but Dakota Barrie and Charde Huntington led a 12-2 run the rest of the quarter to extend the lead to 47-32 after three.

Mountain Home stretched its lead to 20 points early in the fourth and won going away, 62-43.

"It definitely wasn't pretty at times," said Coach Keener after the game. "I thought the officials let it get a little out of hand the first half. I thought they did a better job tightening down things in the second half, but, yeah, it got a little ugly."

Charde Huntington led the Mountain Home scoring attack with 16 points. Dakota Barrie and Blas Lord both had 10 points. Barrie also had 10 rebounds and six assists.

Rachel Warila added nine points, Jessica Liercke and Arlene Futch both had eight points and Amanda Osborn scored one point.

The win improved the Lady Tigers to 4-2 on the season and 1-1 in conference play. Mountain Home was on the road at Nampa Tuesday night. They host Kuna at home on Friday night.