Tigers end season in loss to Cougars

Going into last Tuesday night's regular season ending game at Caldwell, the Mountain Home Tigers had two goals in mind: first off, win the game, and second, win by at least four points.

By halftime, both goals were still very much alive, but in the end, turnovers and missed shots led to a 42-38 win for Caldwell, thus ending the season for the Tigers, with no trip to the district tourney.

It came down to the final regular season game with the Cougars because the conference has nine teams, and only eight advance to the District III 4A Tournament. Caldwell was in eighth place at 1-14, while the Tigers were 0-15 in conference.

Caldwell's only win was a 47-44 win over Mountain Home at Mountain Home earlier in the season. If Mountain Home could get the win for a split, the first tie-breaker would be the head-to-head competition. Since the Cougars had won by three in the first meeting, the Tigers would need to win by four or more to keep their season going into the district tourney.

Mountain Home started slow, and trailed 5-1 early, but got some three-balls to drop -- three by Michael Daniels and one by Tyler Senger -- to go up 15-9 at the quarter's end.

A basket by Michael Daniels to start the second quarter put the Tigers up by eight, 17-9, and Mountain Home led 26-12, at the half.

The Tigers only shot the ball six times in the third quarter, and only made one of them -- a 3-ball by Doug Long with 1:40 left in the quarter that stopped a 9-0 Caldwell run. The Tigers trailed 30-29 heading into the fourth quarter.

Jeremy Hopper's trey to start the fourth quarter put the Tigers back in front, 32-30. A basket by Ryan Langan tied the game at 32-32, with 6:30 left.

Dustin Walker's two free throws put Caldwell in front, 34-32, with 5:28 left. Devin Wright's basket with 5:19 left tied the game at 34-34.

Henry Fox sank one of two free throws to put the Cougars back ahead, 35-34, with 4:11 left. A basket by Doug Long put the Tigers back ahead, 36-35, with 3:52 left.

Caldwell missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw, but Mountain Home turned the ball over on its next time down the court.

The Cougars scored to go up, 37-36, with 2:52 left. With 2:30 left, Michael Daniels sank two free throws to put the Tigers back ahead, 38-37.

The two teams both turned the ball over on their next two possessions, until the Cougars scored to go up, 39-38, with 41 seconds left.

The two teams then traded turnovers before Caldwell hit one of two free throws to make it 40-38, Caldwell, with 15.8 seconds left.

The Tigers came down and went for the tie and missed, then fouled on the rebound. The Cougars added two more free throws with 5.6 seconds left to make it 42-38.

The clock ran out before the Tigers were able to get off a shot, the Tigers losing by four.

"The kids played their hearts out -- they left it all on the floor," said Tigers coach Brion Bethel after the game. "It just boils down to us coaches -- we have to do a better job of preparing these guys. We failed the kids this season, obviously, but we'll get back to the drawing board and see what we can do to help these kids get better.

"They did everything they could, and I'm proud of them for working as hard as they did," the coach added.

Michael Daniels led the Tigers in scoring with a season- and career-high 15 points. Doug Long added seven points, Cristian Riedel and Devin Wright both scored four points, Jeremy Hopper and Tyler Senger both had three, and Jose Rodriguez added two points to round out the scoring.

Mountain Home shot 33 percent from the field, including seven of 19 three-balls. They hot seven of nine free throws.

Caldwell shot 34 percent from the field, hitting four of 10 treys. They shot 53 percent from the foul line.

Mountain Home won the battle on the boards, 26-24. Jose Rodriguez had 11 rebounds to lead the Tigers.

Mountain Home finishes the season 0-20, but Coach Bethel is optimistic about the future of the Tiger basketball program.

"I couldn't be more excited about what we have in the future," the coach said. "It's a tough break for our seniors, and I know we let them down as coaches --we didn't do our part in getting them the victories we should have had, but we're superly excited about next season.

"We'll get back at it in March -- we'll give them a couple weeks break, then get after it, starting them out with conditioning and clinics and camps, and get right after it," the coach added.