Lady Tigers beat Columbia, fall to Skyview

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers came away with a split of their SIC 4A conference girls basketball games last week, beating Columbia at home and losing on the road to Skyview.

Mtn. Home 50

Columbia 35

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers went on a 16-0 run over a three and a half minute span in the second half to pull away from Columbia for a 50-35 SIC 4A conference win on Dec. 5 in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The run came after the Lady Wildcats had come from 11 points back to within two, at 29-27, with 1:43 left in the third quarter.

Mountain Home had shot out to an early 8-2 lead on the Columbia team that started two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior, but the Lady Wildcats clawed back to tie the game at 8-8 with 49 seconds left in the first quarter.

Sheena Nelsen sank two free throws with 18 seconds left to give the Lady Tigers the lead back at 10-8.

It was 23-14 Mountain Home at the half.

Emily Moranda's basket with 7:12 left in the third period gave the Lady Tigers a 27-16 lead, but Columbia fought back within two, at 29-27, with 1:43 left in the quarter.

Baskets by Chantell Crane and Brandie Riggs pushed the lead to six, and Riggs canned a trey at the buzzer to put Mountain Home back up by nine, 36-27, heading into the final quarter.

The Mountain Home run continued in the fourth, as they built up their lead to 45-27 before Columbia finally scored. A basket by Dani Dean and a three-point play by Brandie Riggs gave the Lady Tigers their biggest lead of the night, 50-29, with 3:58 left.

The Lady Tigers would not score again, but the game was not in doubt, and Mountain Home won, 50-35.

"We still made too many mistakes," said Mountain Home Lady Tiger coach Brian English in radio comments after the game.

"We've got to play better defense than we did tonight."

Coach English was pleased with the way his team kept their composure when Columbia crept back within two, and went on the run to put the game away.

"They really hung together. No one got mad at anybody, they buckled down and went to work and boy, that's all you can ask for to give that good effort like that."

Brandie Riggs and Emily Moranda paced the Lady Tigers with 12 points apiece, season highs for both.

Ashley Kipp added eight points and led Mountain Home with seven steals. Dani Dean scored six points and led the team with nine rebounds. Jessica Egusquiza and Chantell Crane both had four points, Hannah Zamora and Sheena Nelsen each added two, and Zamora brought down eight boards.

Mountain Home put up a lot of shots, but not a good percentage of them went in. They hit one of four (25 percent) treys, and shot just 28 percent (17/60) inside the circle. They connected on 13 of 25 free throws for 52 percent.

Columbia shot 33 percent from the field, hitting one of three long balls, and 11 of 33 inside the arc. They made just 43 percent (10/23) of their free throws.

Mountain Home won the battle on the boards, bringing down 44 rebounds to Columbia's 26.

Skyview 49

Mtn. Home 43

Take away the second quarter, and the Lady Tigers battled Skyview to a 38-38 tie. That bad second quarter, when Mountain Home managed just five points, proved to be the difference in the game , however, as the Lady Tigers dropped a 49-43 conference contest at Skyview Friday night.

Mountain Home trailed 20-13 after a quarter, but turnovers took their toll in the second period -- the Lady Tigers only took two shots from the field, as they turned the ball over 12 times in the quarter, and trailed 31-18, at halftime.

The Lady Tigers battled back in the third period, cutting a 14-point deficit to just four, 35-31, with 3:02 left in the period. The Lady Hawks scored the final four points of the quarter to lead, 39-31, heading to the final eight minutes.

The closest Mountain Home got in the fourth was six, when Chantell Crane drained a trey with six seconds left.

"We played a great second half," said Coach English. "I think we came out in the second half with a little more intensity than we did in the first half. We made too many turnovers down at the end when we shouldn't have, but that's life. All in all, I thought we played a good game."

Chantell Crane led the Lady Tigers with 11 points at Skyview, a new season high for her. Jessica Egusquiza added eight points, Dani Dean had a new season high with seven, Ashley Kipp and Emily Moranda both scored six, and Alyssa Saltzgaber added one.

Mountain Home connected on just one of five treys for 20 percent, but shot well inside the arc, hitting 61 percent (14/23). They shot 75 percent (12/16) from the free throw line.

Their downfall was turnovers -- they had 33 for the game.

Skyview hit just 17 percent (4/23) long balls, and shot 33 percent (14/42) inside the circle. They hit only nine of 19 (47 percent) foulshots.

The Lady Tigers dropped to 2-2 in conference and 4-5 on the season. Mountain Home hosts Bishop Kelly tomorrow (Thursday) night and travels to Emmett Saturday afternoon for a 2 p.m. game with the Lady Huskies.

"Those two games will show us where we stand," said Coach English of the Bishop Kelly and Emmett games. "We're 2-2 in conference right now. We can be 2-4 at the end of that , or maybe 3-3, or even 4-2 -- that would be nice -- we'll have to wait and see."