Lady Tigers fall in district tourney opener

True, the post season is considered a, "brand new season," as far as the old cliche goes, but last Tuesday's District Tournament opener for Mountain Home against Emmett was much the same old story: good defense, but not much offense. The result: Emmett 41, Mountain Home 28.

The Lady Tigers got a free throw and basket by Lauren Hicks to take an early 3-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game, but managed only three more points the rest of the quarter, which saw Emmett up 10-6 at its end.

Mountain Home stayed close in the second quarter, and came within a point, at 18-17 on two free throws by Kylie Lippert with 25 seconds left in the half. Jordon Reinstra's basket in the closing seconds gave Emmett a 20-17 halftime advantage.

The Lady Tigers could get no closer in the third period, and were down 34-26 heading into the final quarter. Mountain Home held the Lady Huskies to just seven points in the fourth, but managed only two of their own -- a basket by Des Walden at the 5:50 mark in the quarter.

"Turnovers hurt -- and their conversions -- they had 20 points off our turnovers, and that's the game right there," said a frustrated Lady Tiger coach Karen Kohring after the game. "When we have single digits in scoring for the quarters, that shows our offense was struggling. We held them to right at 10 points per quarter, or less -- seven in the fourth quarter -- but too many turnovers tonight, and they made (converted) the turnovers, and made them look easy."

The Lady Tigers turned the ball over 34 times on the night, while Emmett had 23.

Des Walden had a season-high 10 points to lead the Lady Tigers against Emmett. Lauren Hicks added seven, Shelby Wickmark, six, Ali Hillman, three, and Kylie Lippert, two.

Mountain Home shot just 23 percent (9-39) from the field, missing their only three-point attempt, and were 10 of 16 (63 percent) from the free-throw line.

Emmett shot 31 percent (15-48) from the field, and only one of five (20 percent) long balls, and hit 10 of 17 (59 percent) free throws.

In other first round action, fourth-seeded Kuna got past fifth-seeded Caldwell, 48-42. In winners' bracket games last Thursday night, top-seeded Vallivue beat Kuna 47-36, while number two seed Bishop Kelly held off Emmett 56-49.

Last night the Lady Tigers battled to stay alive, facing Kuna, a team they split with during the regular season.

"We missed them on the coin-flip as far as playing them opening night," said Coach Kohring of Kuna. "We have to find some offense and some good anticipation and some movement. We're really right where we need to be be on our offensive pattern, we're just not getting the ball in there to our big people so they can play with it like we want them to. We need to work on that and hope for the best."

Caldwell faced Emmett last night in the other loser-out game. Last night's winners play for third place tomorrow night at 6:15 p.m., and Vallivue meets Bishop Kelly at 8 p.m. for the district championship, with both Vallivue and Bishop Kelly advancing on to next week's 4A State Tournament at Mountain View High School.

The third place team travels to Grangeville on Saturday for a state play-in game against the number two team out of the north, either Moscow or Sandpoint.