Tigers spilt games against Emmett

The Mountain Home Tigers had to settle for a split with the Emmett Huskies last week, winning at home, but losing at Emmett.

Mountain Home 64

Emmett Huskies 61

The alarm clock rang, but the Tigers kept hitting the snooze button until the second half, when they shut down the Emmett Huskies and responded with an exciting come-back effort to win last Wednesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The game started well enough, as Arturo Garcia nailed a trey to put the Tigers up 3-0 in the first minute of the ballgame. However, Emmett responded with a 12-0 run to go up 12-3 before the Tigers scored again, this time on Brock Zamora's three.

The Tigers would hit four treys in the first quarter, but trailed in the ballgame 21-14 after a quarter.

The second quarter saw more of the run-and-gun brand of ball, and the Huskies led Mountain Home 40-31 at halftime.

After a basket by Brian Ahlers gave the Huskies their biggest lead of the game, 42-31, Mountain Home slowly whittled away at the lead, and trailed by four, 53-49 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Tigers managed to tie the game at 55-55 on a basket by Stephen Reinschmidt with 4:38 left, but Jon Biar scored on a steal and lay-up to put the Huskies back up 57-55.

A trey by Brock Zamora -- his fifth of the night -- put the Tigers back ahead 58-57, but Emmett was not giving up easy. Dustin Charters scored with 3:29 remaining to give the Huskies the lead, 59-58.

Brock Zamora sank two free throws with 3:15 left to put the Tigers ahead for good, 60-59. Stephen Reinschmidt's basket made it 62-59, but Brian Ahlers scored with 1:38 left to cut the lead to one, at 62-61.

Keith Yagues netted two free throws with 11.4 seconds left to make it a 64-61 final.

"That was scary!" said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game, breathing a sigh of relief. "I was real happy with the second-half effort, and obviously, we talked about defense a little bit at halftime, giving up 40 points in the first half.

"I thought we came back and hustled and played a little better in the second half and we kind of got into it offensively and made some clutch shots down the stretch that enabled us to come back and eek ahead and eek the game out. I'm happy about that part. I'd like to forget about the first half, though."

Brock Zamora had a new season high with 26 points, on five-of-11 treys, four-of-six two-point shots, and three-of-four from the free-throw line. He also led the Tigers on the boards, bringing down 11 boards.

Stephen Reinschmidt added 14 points, Arturo Garcia hit for 12, Jarrod Roberson had four points, Keith Yagues, Travis Elliott and Matt Maurer each scored two, and Clark Williams and Danny Downen both had one point.

Mountain Home connected on nine of 29 (31 percent) treys, 11 of 26 (42 percent) twos, and 15 of 20 (75 percent) free throws.

Emmett hit just four of 18 (22 percent) threes, but shot 58 percent (22/38) inside the arc. They made five of 10 (50 percent) from the foul line.

Emmett Huskies 50

Mountain Home 44

The Emmett Huskies wanted to make sure Friday night's game at Emmett would not be a re-run of Wednesday night's game at Mountain Home. The Mountain Home Tigers also wanted to make sure the first half was not a re-run.

Emmett took control of the game early, but the Tigers battled back from a 7-2 deficit to lead, 10-7.

Emmett got treys from Steven Lynch and Brian Ahlers to lead 13-10 after a quarter.

The Huskies edged out to a 28-19 lead with 1:16 left in the half, before Mountain Home scored the final four points to make it 28-23 Emmett at the half.

Emmett reclaimed their nine-point lead, 32-23 with 6:26 left in the third period. A 9-0 run by the Tigers tied the game at 32-32 with 4:32 left.

Dustin Charters scored to put the Huskies up 34-32 with 3:20 left in the period, but Mountain Home regained the lead moments later when Travis Elliott canned a trey to put the Tigers ahead 35-34.

Charters, who led Emmett with 16 points, scored again, to put Emmett up 36-35. Kip Buck hit one of two free throws with 53 seconds left in the quarter, and Emmett had a 37-35 margin heading into the final eight minutes of play.

A trey by Arturo Garcia to start the fourth gave Mountain Home a 38-37 lead, which lasted until Adam Briscoe scored with 4:54 left in the game.

Brian Ahlers scored to make it 41-38 Emmett, and the lead went to 44-38 with Jon Biar's trey with 3:06 left.

A basket by Arturo Garcia made it 44-40 with 2:37 left, and Stephen Reinschmidt scored to make it 44-42, with 1:48 left.

Jake Lyter then sank two free throws to make it 46-42 a couple seconds later.

Arturo Garcia, who led the Tigers with 18 points, sank two free throws with 38 seconds to bring the Tigers back within two, 46-44.

Jake Lyter and Dustin Charters both sank two free throws down the stretch to make it a 50-44 final.

"That was a real tough one," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "We've got things that we've got to learn from this game, and a lot of things were pointed out. I didn't think we held our composure very good. I didn't think we played with much poise, and it came down to one of those types of games -- which I knew it would over here -- where that stuff helps in the fourth quarter, and we just didn't play with poise, and were not able to come back."

Arturo Garcia went past 300 points on the year, scoring 18 to give him 309. Stephen Reinschmidt netted 10 points, Clark Williams and Travis Elliott both scored five, Brock Zamora, three, Jarrod Roberson, two, and Danny Downen, one.

Mountain Home made just four of 16 (25 percent) treys, 12 of 28 (43 percent) twos, and netted eight of 12 (67 percent) from the foul line.

Emmett hit five of 17 (29 percent) three-pointers, 40 percent (10/25) inside the arc, and 75 percent (15/20) from the charity stripe.

Kuna and Emmett finished tied for fifth with 2-8 league marks. Kuna won the coin toss for fifth place, so Mountain Home, who finished fourth with a 4-6 league mark, and 7-12 overall record, opened District III 4A Tournament play at Caldwell last night at 6:15 p.m. against Kuna. Third seeded Caldwell faced Emmett in the 8 p.m. game.

The district tourney continues Saturday, with top-seeded Vallivue meeting the Mountain Home-Kuna winner at 6:15 p.m., and number two seed Bishop Kelly opening against the Caldwell-Emmett winner at 8 p.m.

The Mountain Home-Kuna loser plays next Tuesday night at 6:15 p.m. against the loser of the Bishop Kelly game, while the Caldwell-Emmett loser plays the loser of the Vallivue game at 8 p.m. next Tuesday.

The third-place game is Feb. 26, and the district championship game is Feb. 27.

The top two seeds automatically qualify for the 4A State Tournament at Albertson College of Idaho March 4-6, while the third-place team travels north on Feb. 28 for a play-in game.