Lady Tigers sweep past Nampa

Mountain Home bounced back from a Thursday night loss to Vallivue to down Nampa at Nampa on Saturday night.

Vallivue 57

Mountain Home 26

A couple things became clear last Thursday night when Mountain Home hosted Vallivue in SIC 4A conference girls basketball:

(1) Vallivue is a very good basketball team, and,

(2) the Lady Tigers are still a ways away from being a very good basketball team.

After Marquina Gilliam scored to tie the game at 2-2, with 6:32 left to go in the first quarter, Mountain Home would go close to 14 minutes before they would score again, when Erica Stanton scored with 48 seconds left in the half.

In between was a 22-0 run by Vallivue, as they built up a 24-4 halftime advantage.

Mountain Home turned the ball over 21 times in the first half, and got off just 14 shots at the basket.

The Lady Tigers came out strong in the third quarter, and matched baskets with Vallivue, but the Lady Falcons outscored Mountain Home 20-11 in the fourth period to leave with a 57-26 victory, which improved them to 13-0 on the season.

"We just didn't handle their pressure," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Brian English. "They're a good team. They came out and exposed some of our flaws, but I felt we came back in the second half and played fairly well.

"You just have to understand, we've just got to grow. This is new ground for us. We've got some improving to do."

Erica Stanton led Mountain Home in scoring with eight points. Marquina Gilliam, Lisa Kellerman and Ali Hillman each added six points.

Hillman led Mountain home in rebounds, bringing down 11, as the Lady Tigers lost the battle of the boards, 39-19, against a Vallivue team that had three players 6' 0" or better.

Mountain Home ended the night shooting 28 percent (11/40) from the field, and missed all four of their three-point attempts.

They connected on only four of 14 (29 percent) from the free-throw line.

Vallivue shot 43 percent (22/51) from the field, but were just 17 percent (2/12) on three-pointers. They shot 61 percent (11/18) from the foul line.

Mountain Home 40

Nampa 32

Mountain Home returned to the win column, beating Nampa at Nampa on Saturday night to earn a sweep of the Lady Bulldogs.

The lead changed hands seven times in the first quarter Saturday night at Nampa, with Mountain Home up, 12-11 after a quarter.

Mountain Home fell behind, 13-12, in the second period, but a basket by Marquina Gilliam with 3:08 left put the lady Tigers up, 14-13. It was a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the night.

Mountain Home went into the locker room at halftime up 21-16.

The Lady Tigers stretched their lead to 26-17, with 5:24 left in the third period, but Nampa came back to within four, 37-23 after three.

Mountain Home enjoyed their biggest lead, 37-27, after Sammy Dodge scored with 1:28 left.

They ended the night with a 40-32 victory.

"The girls worked real hard for it tonight," said Coach English in radio comments after the game.

"Like I've always said, if we can play good defense, we're okay, and we played good defense and we worked real hard."

Jessica Egusquiza led Mountain Home in scoring with a season high 12 points. Ali Hillman added eight points, Erica Stanton, Marquina Gilliam and Lisa Kellerman each scored six, and Sammy Dodge scored two points.

The Lady Tigers shot 37 percent (15/41) from the field, including two of six (33 percent) three-pointers. They shot 53 percent (8/15) from the free-throw line.

Nampa shot 39 percent (11/28) from the field, and also connected on two of six (33 percent) on treys. They shot just 35 percent (8/23) from the foul line.

Nampa won the battle of the boards, 23-17. Erica Stanton led Mountain Home with five boards, Lisa Kellerman had four.

The Lady Tigers improved to 5-3 in SIC 4A conference play, which puts them in fourth place in the league standings. They are 6-8, overall.

The Lady Tigers have just one game this week, Friday night at Caldwell. Mountain Home beat Caldwell 38-20 the first time around at Mountain Home.

"It's another game we can't take lightly," said Coach English.

"We beat them once before and we've got to keep our mindset that we've got to play every game hard, and it's an important game for us. We win a couple more games and we can look at a .500 year or better, and that's all we're looking for."

Next week, the Lady Tigers host Kuna Tuesday night, Skyview on Jan. 19, and travel to Bishop Kelly on Jan. 21.