Tigers score upset over Bishop Kelly

"On any given night...."

There is a cliche in sports that's heard throughout the SIC 4A from its coaches about the league being so close competitively, that, "on any given night, anyone can beat anybody." Such was the case last weekend, with the Mountain Home Tigers being a participate on both sides of the issue, as they knocked off Bishop Kelly Friday night at home, but then lost to Kuna, a team with just one win at that point.

Mountain Home 69

Bishop Kelly 59

The Mountain Home Tigers gave the Knights of Bishop Kelly a lesson in shooting threes Friday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium. Approximately three weeks earlier, at Bishop Kelly, the Knights rolled to a 71-45 win, connecting on nine of 19 treys for 47 percent, while Mountain Home hit just two of 15 for 13 percent. The Tigers sizzled from three-point land Friday night, hitting 14 of 24 for 58 percent.

Bishop Kelly grabbed the early lead, and had their biggest cushion at 13-5, half-way through the first period. The Knights led 18-12 heading into the second quarter.

Mountain Home hit five of their 14 treys in the second quarter and built up a 33-26 lead with over two minutes left in the half. The Knights fought back to tie it at 33 -- the second of three ties on the night-- but Arturo Garcia scored on a lay-up as time ran down to give the Tigers a 35-33 lead heading into the locker room at halftime.

The lead went back and fourth early in the third before Mountain Home again built up a seven-point advantage. The Knights fought back to within one, 52-51, heading into the fourth.

After T.J. Macy scored to give Bishop Kelly their fifth lead of the night, Brock Zamora canned a trey to put the Tigers up 55-53, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the night.

Zamora scored 12 of his season-high 21 points in the fourth, as the Tigers kept Bishop Kelly at bay, and Travis Elliott's trey from near mid-court at the buzzer made it a 69-59 final.

Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot was happy with the win, and credited it to a total team effort.

"It was a real team victory. We had guys come off the bench and contribute. Usually, we get a little bit from them defensively, but tonight we got it offensively and defensively, and it was a really great win for us!"

Besides Brock Zamora's 21 points, Stephen Reinschmidt added 14, including four treys, and Travis Elliott hit on two threes in scoring a new season-high 11 points. Arturo Garcia added nine points, Clark Williams, Keith Yagues, Jarrod Roberson and Mark Fisher each had a trey for three points, and Danny Downen scored two.

Coach Kerfoot said they just took advantage of what the Knights gave them.

"We knew they were going to play a soft, sagging man defense, and if you drove (to the basket) there's going to be three guys on you and you're going to get hammered, but the three, if you kept moving the ball around, was going to be there, and we had guys step up and knock it down."

Mountain Home connected on 14 of 24 treys for 58 percent, with eight different players hitting at least one. The Tigers were just 10 of 27 (37 percent) inside the circle, and hit 64 percent (7/11) from the foul line.

Bishop Kelly hit on only four of 16 treys for 25 percent, but were 17 for 33 (52 percent) inside the circle, and 13 of 22 (59 percent) from the free-throw line.

The Tigers had a 27-26 rebounding edge, led by Brock Zamora with nine.

Kuna 70

Mountain Home 61

One thing of note about this year's Mountain Home Tiger basketball team: never expect them to have a hot hand from three-point land two games in a row.

The Tigers were true to form over the weekend, following up their school record tying 14 treys against Bishop Kelly Friday night with just three (on three of 20 shooting, for a chilly 15 percent).

Mountain Home appeared flat coming off their big win over Bishop Kelly the night before, as first half they seemed a step behind both offensively and defensively, and the Kuna Kavemen were eager to take advantage of it.

Kuna ran to an 18-9 first quarter lead, and stretched it to 38-23 at halftime.

Mountain Home managed to cut the lead to seven on a couple occasions in the third period, but could not shut down the Kavemen who roared back to lead 55-38 with a little more than a minute left in the third quarter. Kuna led 55-41 heading into the final period.

The Tigers caught fire in the fourth, cutting the lead to five, at 63-58, with 3:38 left in the ballgame.

Mountain Home went down the floor twice with a chance to cut into that lead, but either turned the ball over, and or were unable to get their shots to drop.

Kuna, meanwhile, cashed in at the free-throw line, going nine of 12 in the final quarter to keep the Tigers from getting close.

Coach Kerfoot thought his Tigers definitely came out flat.

"We really did, and defensively, that was a big part of it. We gave up 38 points in the first half, and it's tough to go on the road and score that many points to come back. We had a little problem scoring in the first half anyway."

Kerfoot did think his Tigers made a gallant effort to come back in the second half.

"I'd have to say I thought we hustled and scrapped the second half. Had we had that effort the entire game, we wouldn't have been in that situation. We pulled back from 15 down a couple of times and really closed it up, and we made some runs, we just couldn't sustain it."

Arturo Garcia set a new career and season high, scoring 27 points in the game. Travis Elliott matched his season high set the night before, adding 11 points.

Stephen Reinschmidt netted nine, Keith Yagues, six, Jarrod Roberson and Brock Zamora both scored three, and Clark Williams had two points.

Mountain Home shot an icy cold 15 percent (3-20) from three-point land, but did shoot a hot 62 percent (21-34) inside the arc. The Tigers hit only 10 of 21 (48 percent) free throws.

Kuna hit six of 17 (35 percent) long range shots, 17 of 36 (47 percent) inside the circle, and 72 percent (18-25) from the foul line.

The Kavemen dominated on the boards, winning the rebound battle 35-20. Travis Elliott led the Tiger effort with 7 boards.

The loss dropped the Tigers to 3-5 in league play and 6-11 overall, with two league games against Emmett left on the regular season schedule. While the loss does not put them out of the hunt for third place in league, Kerfoot indicated sweeping the Huskies is imperative to reach third place. "It puts us in a position now, that we have to win both games (against Emmett). We still have a chance, but we've got to take care of business."

Tonight's home game against Emmett is a make-up of the Jan. 24 game canceled because of the weather. It's a single game, with no preliminaries, starting at 7 p.m.

Friday night the Tigers go to Emmett to close out the regular season schedule.