Lady Tigers prepare for 2011-2012 season opener

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers open their 2011-2012 girls basketball season this weekend with games against Timberline and Eagle.

Lady Tiger basketball coach Brent Keener likes the group of girls who turned out this year for basketball.

"Our numbers were decent. The good thing is we don't have to make cuts," the coach said. "It would be nice if we had 60 girls that were competing for the three teams, instead of 33 for three teams, but it's been good. The girls have worked extremely hard and I've been pleasantly surprised."

Coach Keener lost four seniors and three starters to graduation from last year's varsity squad -- a team that went 14-11 overall and qualified for the 4A State Tournament. Though they will be hard to replace, he likes the makeup and experience he has on this year's team.

"We lost some key players who had played some varsity for a couple of years, so there's going to be some growing pains, but we've got quite a bit of experience coming back," the coach said.

Lady Tigers like Keesha Janis-Gibson will play a huge role on this year's team, the coach added.

"(Meanwhile) Hailey (Belt) has had a lot of varsity experience, Emilee (Schetzle) played quite a bit of varsity, Courtney Christiansen was huge for us last year at the end of the season, and then those young kids -- Teresa (Fredell), Marissa (Streeter), Tessa (Pachner) -- they got a lot of good experience this summer, which is good, so we'll be relying on them."

Coach Keener sees Middleton as still being the favorite to win the conference this season, although a lot hinges on whether or not Middleton's star player, Amaya Ah You, is able to come back from an injury.

"Middleton has to be considered the favorite, but I think a lot of it is going to depend on Amaya," the coach said. "I don't see how she'll be able to come back, but you never know. She totally blew her knee out and it was late June. I think they'll still be considered a favorite, but they're not as strong without her by any means.

"Bishop Kelly will be tough -- they played a lot better later in the summer than I saw earlier in the summer -- and obviously Skyview will be good with Bonner and the other young kids," he added.

Keesha Janis-Gibson leads the returners back this year for Mountain Home. The 5-foot, 10-inch senior had more than 200 points (252 -- a 10.1 average) and 200 rebounds (206 -- 8.6 average) last year as a junior.

The Lady Tigers open Friday night at Timberline High School in Boise and host the ladies of Eagle on Saturday in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.