Tigers stumble with three losses

After starting the season with three straight wins, the Mountain Home Tigers took their lumps last week in losses at home to Capital, Centennial and Nampa.

Capital Eagles 74

Mountain Home 47

It was reality check time last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium, as the Capital Eagles showed the Mountain Home Tigers they still have a way to go to become a basketball power.

The Tigers battled Capital tough in the first quarter, leading on three different occasions, the last at 10-8 with 3:20 to go in the first period. Mountain Home would not score again in the quarter, as they trailed 16-10 at the end of one.

The Tigers fell behind by nine early in the second period, but battled back within four, to 24-20, on a basket by Robert Moss with 4:19 left in the half. The Eagles increased their leadto eight, and Mountain Home got back within five, 29-24, on three free throws by Jacob Monasterio with 2:55 left.

A span of nearly six minutes would go by before Mountain Home would score again, during which the Eagles went on a 17-0 run to increase their lead to 46-24.

It was 57-31 with Capital heading going into the fourth, and after a basket by Clark Manwearing to start the period cut the margin to 24, that was the closest the Tigers would get until a trey by Robert Moss cut the margin to 23, 70-47, with 1:40 left. The Tigers would go scoreless the rest of the way, losing 74-47.

"You go playing with the big dogs night after night when you've got one night to get ready and this can happen," said Mountain Home Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot in radio comments after the game. "They're a good basketball team," said Kerfoot of Capital. "They took trophies home from the (5A) State Tournament the last couple years, and three of their guys are still starting. They're a very fine basketball club when they turn it on, and we could not stop them at all defensively, they just shredded us! Hats off to them, they executed very well. It's a little step backwards, but sometimes that happens when you play the big boys."

Jarrod Roberson led the Tigers in scoring with 10 points, Troy Williams and Eric Gardzina both netted nine points, season highs for both. Travis Eikeness scored five points, David Anderson

Monasterio added four points, Robert Moss and Jacob Monasterio each scored three, and Tyler Hicks and Clark Manwearing both netted two points.

Mountain Home had their poorest shooting night from three-point land, hitting just two of 12 for 17 percent. They were 16 of 30 (53 percent) inside the arc, and connected on nine of 17 (53 percent) from the free-throw line.

Capital shot 29 percent (5/17) on threes, 55 percent (22/40) on two-point shots, and hit 63 percent (15/24) from the foul line.

Centennial 62

Mountain Home 48

The Tigers were outscored 37-20 in the middle two quarters, and it was a deficit from which they were unable to recover Thursday night in their 62-48 loss at home.

Mountain Home started strong, and led 15-11 after a quarter. A trey by Jarrod Roberson and a free throw by David Armstrong gave the Tigers their biggest lead of the night, 19-11, with seven minutes left in the half. The Patriots outscored them 18-6 the rest of the quarter to take a 29-25 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Mountain Home was never able to cut into the lead in the third quarter, as the Patriots stretched their lead to 48-35 heading into the final quarter.

Centennial stretched their lead to 17 points, but the Tigers would not fade, and cut the margin to a final 62-48 deficit.

"I thought we looked good early, both offensively and defensively, and then we broke down and we quit moving and I thought Centennial started taking some things away from us," said Coach Kerfoot.

"They figured out what we were doing on our first and second pass and we didn't go much beyond that and we couldn't make more than two passes into our offense without throwing it away or throwing it into a crowd. We've got to get much more disciplined offensively than what we showed tonight."

Jarrod Roberson led the Tigers with 12 points, Jacob Monasterio added eight, Robert Moss, seven, Tyler Hicks and David Armstrong both had a season high five, Eric Gardzina netted four, Troy Williams had three, and David Anderson and Clark Manwearing each scored two points.

Mountain Home hit just 21 percent (3/14) of three-point attempts, shot 43 percent (15/35) inside the arc, and hit 56 percent (9/16) from the foul line.

Centennial hit just 20 percent (2/10) on treys, but were 55 percent (18/33) inside, and outscored Mountain Home by 11 at the free-throw line, hitting 20 of 31 for 65 percent.

Nampa Bulldogs 53

Mountain Home 45

Mountain Home opened its SIC 4A conference schedule at home against Nampa, battling the taller Bulldogs tough before losing 53-45.

The Tigers battled Nampa tough in the first quarter, and led on four different occasions before falling behind, 16-13 after a quarter.

A 17-4 run by Nampa put the Bulldogs up 33-17 with 1:33 left in the first half, but Mountain Home got treys by Robert Moss, David Anderson and Tyler Hicks to cut the margin to 35-26 at halftime.

The Tigers clawed their way back within four, 41-37, with 2:24 left in the third quarter. It was 45-40, Nampa, after three.

A basket by David Anderson with 5:55 left brought the Tigers within three, at 45-42, but Nampa played ball control the rest of the way and managed a 53-45 win.

"I'm real proud of the kids for coming back in the second half," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "We got ourselves back in a position where one or two things got right for us in the end, and we can come away with that one, but mistakes in the first half got us a big deficit. I was just proud of the way they came back and fought in the second half. They fought like champions tonight, and that's all I'm worried about right there. Right now, this early in the season, I think that's pretty important."

Robert Moss paced the Tigers scoring attack with 16 points.

David Anderson netted nine points, Tyler Hicks a season high seven points, Eric Gardzina added four, Jacob Monasterio, three, and Jarrod Roberson, David Armstrong and Travis Eikeness each scored two.

Mountain Home shot 30 percent (6/20) on three pointers, but only 23 percent (10/43) inside, mainly because of altered shots against Nampa's 6' 9" post Trevor Morris. The Tigers connected on seven of 12 (58 percent) free throws.

Nampa shot 23 percent (3/13) on treys, 48 percent (15/31) inside the arc, and 52 percent (14/27) from the foul line.

The Tigers did out-rebound the taller Bulldogs, 39-33, led by Eric Gardzina's 17 boards. Trevor Morris led Nampa with 13.

The Tigers took a 3-3 overall record and 0-1 conference mark to Kuna last night to face the Kavemen in conference play.

The Tigers return to action on Jan. 3, at home against Caldwell.