Lady Tigers battling for shot at state

A near miraculous fourth quarter rally fell a bit short at Skyview as the Lady Tigers came away with a split of their district tourney games last week.

Mountain Home 31

Caldwell 26

"Sometimes you've got to win ugly, and we won ugly tonight," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Brian English in radio comments after the first round District III 4A Girls Basketball Tournament game in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home last Wednesday night.

It started out as a defensive struggle, with Caldwell getting on the scoreboard first on a basket by Irais Quintero with 4:37 left in the opening quarter.

Mountain Home tied it their next trip down the floor on a basket by Lisa Kellerman, and would score 15 straight points before the Lady Cougars would score again, on another basket by Quintero with 2:02 left in the half. It was 17-4 Mountain Home at the half.

The third quarter ended with the Lady Tigers up by 15, 23-8, but the game was far from over.

Caldwell, which had missed the first 13 treys in the ball game, and had only connected on one of 24 in their previous two games against the Lady Tigers, started the fourth with back-to-back treys by Annika Ruzicka and Amanda Strong. Strong added two free throws to make it 23-16, with 4:57 left.

Two free throws by Lisa Kellerman pushed the Mountain Home lead to 25-16 with 4:34 left, but some 90 seconds later, another trey by Ruzicka and one by her just inside the circle cut the Lady Tiger lead to 25-21, with 3:14 left.

Marquina Gilliam, who was handcuffed defensively by Caldwell most of the night, broke free for a basket at the three-minute mark that made it 29-23 Mountain Home. After Irais Quintero cut the lead back to four, 27-23, Gilliam answered to make it a six-point game, and Lisa Kellerman, who had a career high 19 points, made it 31-23, with a minute left.

Caldwell got a basket from Amanda Strong and a free throw from Jennifer McDonald to make it a 31-26 final.

"They did a good job putting pressure on Marquina," said Coach English. "She had a terrible night shooting the ball, and she's our engine, she makes us run, but the nice thing was the other girls picked up the slack. Lisa Kellerman had a whale of a game tonight."

Besides Kellerman's 19 points and seven rebounds, Marquina Gilliam added nine points and had four steals, and Ali Hillman scored three points and led the team with eight rebounds. Erica Stanton also had four steals and Jessica Egusquiza and Hillman both had three assists.

The Lady Tigers shot just 24 percent (12/50) from the field, and missed all nine of their three-point attempts. They shot 50 percent (7/14) from the free-throw line.

Caldwell shot 26 percent (10/38) from the field, which included three of 20 (15 percent) treys. They made only three of eight (38 percent) free throws.

The Lady Tigers turned the ball over 17 times, but forced 27 turnovers by Caldwell.

Skyview 45

Mountain Home 41

The win over Caldwell put Mountain Home against Skyview in the semi-finals Saturday night at Skyview. The Lady Hawks had rolled over Kuna, 54-23, in their first round contest.

Had the Lady Tigers had a better second quarter effort against Skyview, it would be Mountain Home, not Skyview playing for the district championship tomorrow night.

But an 18-6 scoring edge for the Lady Hawks in the second period proved to be a bit too much for Mountain Home to overcome.

The Lady Tigers fell behind, 5-0 early, but fought back to within two, 9-7, after a quarter. An 8-0 run by Skyview to start the second period pushed the deficit to 17-7 until Marquina Gilliam's trey sparked a 6-0 Mountain Home run that cut it to 17-13, with 3:12 left in the half. Skyview scored the final 10 points of the half to go into the locker room up 27-13.

Lisa Kellerman scored seven of her 13 points in the third period but the Lady Tigers trailed 39-26 heading into the final quarter.

Trailing 43-27 with 5:56 left, Mountain Home battled back, scoring 14 unanswered points to come within two, 43-41, with a minute remaining.

Skyview made only two of seven free throws from then on, but it was enough, as the Lady Tigers were unable to get any closer, losing 45-41.

"We played a very good second half," said Coach English. "If we just didn't have that bad second quarter, but that's some things that happen. Skyview did a good job on us in the second quarter. They worked the ball and shot the three real well.

"I said coming in we had to take one of the two (three-point shooting or inside game) away, and I thought we did a real good job on Cammy Dranginis tonight, but we allowed them too many threes in that second quarter, and that's what did us in, but we really played hard in that second half."

Marquina Gilliam led the way with 19 points, and had four steals. Lisa Kellerman added 13. Erica Stanton scored six points and led the team with four assists, and Jessica Egusquiza had with three points. Ali Hillman led the Lady Tigers on the boards with 10, Mountain Home battling back to win the battle of the boards, 42-40.

Mountain Home shot just 13 percent (3/23) from the field first half, but ended up shooting 23 percent (12/63) and hit 40 percent (4.10) of their treys. Skyview ended the night shooting 31 percent (13/42) from the field, and 38 percent (6/16) on three-pointers.

Both teams ended the night connecting on 13 of 23 (57 percent) free throws.

Mountain Home ended the night with 17 turnovers, while the Lady Hawks ended up with 19 turnovers.

The loss puts the Lady Tigers in the consolation bracket, facing Emmett this (Wednesday) afternoon at 5 p.m. at Skyview. Emmett followed their opening loss to Bishop Kelly with a win over Nampa.

"We play Emmett for the third time. We had a real easy time with them at our place (winning, 53-38), and we struggled at their place (winning 47-46)," said Coach English. "I'll have to go back and watch some film, but I think it was their three-point shots that did us in there. I think we'll be able to take care of that in a couple days of practice and be ready for them."

Bishop Kelly meets Caldwell in the second loser-out game tonight, with tonight's winners playing at 5 p.m. tomorrow for third place. The third place team then travels to Grangeville on Saturday to take on either Moscow or Post Falls for a berth at the State 4A Girls Basketball Tournament at Timberline in Boise Feb. 16-18.