Tigers skid on the road, fall to Nampa, Kuna

The Mountain Home Tigers had their struggles last week in conference road games at Nampa and Kuna.

Nampa 74

Mountain Home 46

The Mountain Home Tigers went ice cold from the field during the middle two quarters last Tuesday night at Nampa, getting outscored 36-10 during that stretch, which led to a 74-46 SIC 4A conference win for Nampa.

Mountain Home hit just three of 20 shots (15 percent) they put up in the middle two quarters, but were outscored just 38-36 in the first and fourth quarters.

"I didn't think we played with a very good effort tonight," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot, in radio comments after the game.

"They're a good team and they've got a lot of size, and I think that hurt us, but we didn't come out and play the game plan.

"We were hoping to get out and run, and then, if we didn't have a lay-in, we were going to pull it out and run some time off to try and pull them out defensively, but we came down and would shoot a three-pointer where we got no rebounds, and the ball would go back the other way.

"We've got to do a little re-grouping, a little gut-check time. There were a lot of guys tonight playing like they did not want to be playing, and we're going to have to instill that in them that maybe they do want to be playing. I don't know. I just wasn't very pleased with our effort at all tonight."

Jarrod Roberson led the Tigers in scoring with 20 points. Chase Bitterman added eight points, Matt Maurer scored six, Steven Oswald and Brian Fields both had four, and Travis Eikeness and Michael Hinton netted two each to round out the scoring.

Mountain Home connected on just one of 15 (7 percent) three-pointers they threw up. They made good one 11 of 30 (37 percent) inside the arc, and had one of their better nights fro the free-throw line, hitting 21 of 32 (66 percent).

Nampa shot 38 percent (5/13) on their threes, 55 peer cent (26/47) on twos, and 64 percent (7/11) from the foul line.

The taller Bulldogs, who started 6' 9", 6' 5", 6"3", 6' 0" and 6' 0", easily won the battle of the boards, 39-25. Matt Maurer, Michael Hinton and Steven Oswald each brought down five rebounds to lead Mountain Home.

Kuna 65

Mountain Home 40

The Tigers went frigid cold from the field in the third quarter of their SIC 4A conference game Saturday night at Kuna.

Mountain Home started out well, shooting out to a 12-4 lead, and led 12-8 at the end of the first quarter.

Kuna took the lead in the second quarter, building up a five-point lead before the Tigers rallied to tie the game at 21, and again at 23, but Kuna was up 28-25 at halftime.

Mountain Home hit just two of 19 field goal attempts (11 percent), including five misses from long range, as the Kavemen outscored them 20-4 in the third, to increase their lead over Mountain Home to 48-29 heading into the final quarter.

Brian Fields canned a trey to start the fourth quarter to bring the Tigers to within 16, 48-32, but that would be the closest they would come the rest of the night, as the Kavemen rolled to a 65-40 win.

"I thought we didn't have that bad of a first half," said Coach Kerfoot in radio comments after the game.

"The first quarter we came out, we executed the offense. One thing I was kind of stressing was running the offense and to get the other team out of position, so that if we did shoot and miss, we would have rebounders.

"We were trying to get set times when we wanted to take a shot when we'd have people in rebound positions, and that worked in the first quarter, but then in the second quarter, we just started taking shots at any time, anywhere, and we had absolutely no rebounding, we missed, they got their running game going a little bit and we fell behind.

"We kind of got regrouped and kind of slowed them down a little bit for awhile, and then the third quarter-- four points in the third quarter. We had our shots, and I thought we had some good looks, but we didn't make them, and they were a little early in the offense, but Kuna got their running game going, and the next thing you know, we're down 20."

Matt Maurer led the Tigers in scoring with nine points. Jarrod Roberson and Brian Fields both added eight, Chase Bitterman scored seven, Travis Eikeness had six, and Trevor Lawson, two.

Mountain Home ended the night five of 22(23 percent) on three-point attempts, 10 of 34 (29 percent) on two-point shots, and hit five of 10 (50 percent) free throws.

Kuna shot 33 percent (4/12) on treys, 45 percent (20/44) inside, and shot 65 percent (13/20) at the foul line.

The Tigers were out rebounded by Kuna 39-33. Trevor Lawson led the Tigers with nine rebounds.

The Tigers were at Skyview last (Tuesday) night to face the league-leading Hawks, and travel to Caldwell Friday night to face the Cougars.