Lady Tigers defeat Kuna

Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Karen Kohring was hoping to head into the final week of the regular season on a roll, with home wins over Kuna and Emmett.

The Kuna win materialized, but the Lady Tigers fell short against Emmett.

Mountain Home 46

Kuna 27

How sweet it is when the shoe is on the other foot for a change. Scoring lulls and poor shooting -- which have plagued the Mountain Home Lady Tigers all season long -- haunted the Lady Kavemen from Kuna last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, as Mountain Home continued their exceptional play at home.

Amanda Boschma gave Kuna a 2-0 lead with a basket in the first minute of play. Christa Stanton answered with a score about a minute later to tie. Erica Jensen hit one of two free throws to put the Lady Kavemen back in front with 5:40 left in the first stanza. It would turn out to be their last lead of the ball game.

Ali Hillman sank two free throws to put Mountain Home up 4-3 at the 5:28 mark, and from there on, the Lady Tigers were off and running. With a tenacious defense that picked up misguided passes and forced hurried shots, Mountain Home shot out to a 16-8 first quarter lead.

The Lady Tigers kept Kuna at bay in the second period, and went into the locker room up 25-16 at the half.

Kuna, whose last points of the second quarter came at the 4:01 mark on Erica Jensen's trey, went close to five minutes (4:50) in the third quarter before Aubrey Music scored with 3:10 left in the third -- almost nine minutes without a basket -- and the Lady Tigers made the most of it, Ali Hillman getting nine of her game high 18 points in that period as Mountain Home led 37-19 heading into the final period.

The Lady Tigers continued their onslaught in the fourth, building up a 46-22 lead with 1:50 left, and coasted to a 46-27 win.

"We knew it was coming!" said a happy Lady Tiger coach Karen Kohring after the game of the victory.

"We knew we had it in us, it was just a matter of getting it done, and they got it done in good shape tonight. It was a good team effort -- especially on defense -- it was just excellent."

Ali Hillman had new season highs in both scoring and rebounds, leading the team with 18 points and 14 boards. Kim Neely had a season high 12 points. Kylie Lippert tied her season high again, scoring five points. Amanda Bitterman also tied her season high of four points. Erica Stanton, Kim Gulley and Christa Stanton each added two points, and Amber Smith scored one.

The Lady Tigers shot 29 (16/56) percent from the floor, including 33 percent (2/6) from long range.

They hit 55 percent (12/22) from the free throw line.

Kuna, who was missing a couple players with injuries, had a night of cold shooting from everywhere on the floor, shooting 22 percent (8/37) from the field, including just 2 of 15 (20 percent) on treys, and just 32 percent (8/25) from the foul line.

Emmett 54

Mountain Home 40

The power went out in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium Saturday night during the pre-game warm up with Emmett. The power came back on, and the lights eventually came on and the game was played, but for Mountain Home, the fire never appeared to be there.

After Jody Zillner scored to give Emmett a 2-0 lead, Shelby Wickmark sank two free throws to tie the game at 2-2. Megan Rolland scored to put the Lady Huskies back in the lead about a minute later, and Mountain Home never was able to get anything going offensively to make any real shot at a comeback.

Emmett led 14-8 after a quarter, and stretched it to 17-10 midway through the quarter. The Lady Tigers closed the gap to 17-15, but was never able to get any closer the rest of the night. Emmett led 28-23 at halftime, and were up 39-29 after three.

Mountain Home forced 33 turnovers by the Lady Huskies, but committed 38 of their own, which threw a wrench in their offensive show.

"We did not come out with any confidence that we could play two games in a row," said a disappointed coach Kohring after the game. "Defensively, we were flat in the third quarter, and offensively, the first, third and fourth quarters were not very pretty. That second quarter, though, we got things going and looked a little better, but overall, it was not a good effort from the Lady Tigers."

Ali Hillman had her second double-double, leading the Lady Tigers with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Erica Stanton added eight points, Christa Stanton, six, Kim Neely and Kim Gulley both scored four, Shelby Wickmark, two, and Amanda Bitterman, one.

The Lady Tigers shot just 27 percent from the field (12/44), and missed all eight three-point attempts, and hit only 16 of 34 free throws (47 percent). Emmett was 23 of 58 for 40 percent from the field, though hit just one of seven (14 percent) treys, and shot a frigid 39 percent (7/18) from the foul line.

The Lady Tigers head to Vallivue Thursday night for their final game of the regular season. Mountain Home is 2-7 in league play and 2-16 overall. Coach Kohring says it's important to have a good effort at Vallivue to prepare them for next week's district tourney.

"It's time to really show that we can play tough. Really, the scoreboard's not going to matter at Vallivue. Of course, we want to win, we're playing to win, but we need to play to do things that we know how to do, and the girls have shown us throughout the season a lot of good things. We need to put them together here at the end, and we have to have a good, strong game at Vallivue and then move into the district tournament and be a spoiler."

The District III 4A Girls Basketball Tournament starts Feb. 3 at Bishop Kelly, and continues Feb. 5, 10, 12 and 13.