Tigers defeat Filer, fall to Emmett and Middleton squads

The Mountain Home Tigers started the week with a non-conference win at home against Filer before losing two close conference games to Emmett and Middleton.

Mtn. Home 58

Filer Wildcats 49

The Mountain Home Tigers overcame a slow start with a 24-point second-quarter effort and went on to beat the Filer Wildcats 58-49 last Tuesday night in non-conference boys basketball in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers took much of the first quarter readjusting to not having junior starter Jake Posey in the lineup. Posey, the second leading scorer for the Tigers, was home ill.

Mountain Home fell behind,10-3 before battling back to within two, at 10-8, with 3:45 left in the first quarter.

Filer shot back out to a 16-10 lead with 12 seconds left in the period. A basket in the closing seconds of the quarter by Robert Moss made it 16-12, Filer, after a quarter, and that basket was the start of a 10-0 run by the Tigers that put them up, 20-16.

From there, Mountain Home outscored the Wildcats 12-7 to take a 36-24 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Filer connected on just one of 10 shots in the third period, as the Tigers rolled to a 47-26 lead heading into the final quarter.

Brandon Doble, starting in place of the ill Jake Posey, scored eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter to help counter the fourth quarter charge by the Wildcats, as they brought the game back to a 58-49 final.

"I thought we started out real flat, but we battled through that," said Tiger boys basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "Missing (Jake) Posey, I think threw us off a little bit, but we kind of figured it out and adjusted and we got a good flow going there for a while, and I looked at this as an opportunity to play a lot of people, so I was trying to do some other things and not worry about winning the game tonight and I think that closed it down at the end."

Coach Kerfoot was pleased at the number of transition baskets they were able to get off Filer.

"That's what we've got to do, and I've got to get it to the point where we can play harder defensively to create those opportunities, because I think that will be one of our strengths if we can get out and run the floor a little bit. We looked good at it tonight. I've not seen a defensive effort by us yet this year with teams in our league that's going to allow us to get out and create these opportunities, and we've got to bolster that up and we've got about two days to do it."

Robert Moss led the Tigers in scoring with 24 points. Brandon Doble had a double-double, scoring 12 points and bringing down 12 rebounds, as the Tigers won the battle of the boards, 42-36.

Chris Rau, seeing his first action of the season up off the JV squad, scored five points, along with Kyle Kerfoot. Stephen Bitrick and Nick Barrie both scored three points, Kyle Hall, Nick O'Briant and Chris Maholick all scored two points.

The Tigers, who entered the game hitting just 17 percent of their three-point attempts, shot 40 percent (8/20) long range, much better than their 30 percent (16/54) inside the arc. The Tigers shot a chilly 22 percent (2/9) from the foul line.

Filer shot just 20 percent (2/10) on their treys, hit 33 percent (13/40) inside the arc, and 61 percent (17/28) from the foul line.

Emmett 60

Mtn. Home 58

(OT)

A gallant second half comeback by the Tigers fell short in overtime Friday night at Emmett as Mountain Home lost to the Huskies 60-58 in overtime.

The Tigers took an early 3-0 lead on a trey by Robert Moss, but nearly five minutes would pass before the Tigers would score again, as the Huskies built up a 13-3 lead. It was 16-7, Emmett, after a quarter.

Mountain Home failed to make any headway against the Huskies in the second quarter, and trailed, 32-19, at the half.

The Tigers shot better in the third quarter, and managed to shave the Emmett lead to eight, 46-38, heading into the fourth quarter.

Emmett scored the first four points of the fourth period to push their lead back to 12, at 50-38, but the Tigers went on a 16-2 run the rest of the quarter to tie the game at 54-54 and force overtime.

Emmett jumped out to a 58-54 lead in overtime. Kyle Hall sank two free throws, with 1:08 left to cut it to 58-56, and the Tigers blew opportunities to tie the game or take the lead.

Davis Burge sank two free throws with 10 seconds left to push the Huskies back out by four, 60-56. Nick Barrie scored at the buzzer to make it a 60-58 final.

Coach Kerfoot was pleased with the second half effort by his Tigers.

"I wish we'd played half that well in the first half, but we had a lot of jitters in the first half, and no execution. I thought we played with more hustle in the second half. That was the main talk at halftime, because I thought in the first half they totally out-hustled us, and I thought we showed a lot more toughness than I'd seen us play with before. We finished several three-point plays inside and we got bumped on some rebounds, but we stayed in there and battled, and that's all the stuff you've got to do to be able to win. We're going to have to do it for four quarters, not two."

Nick Barrie led the Tigers in scoring with a season-high 16 points. Robert Moss added 15, Jake Posey had eight, Kyle Kerfoot, seven, Nick O'Briant, five, Kyle Hall, Chris Rau and Brandon Doble, two each, and Chris Maholick had one point.

The Tigers hit four of 18 (22 percent) three-point shots, 19 of 38 (50 percent) two-pointers, and eight of 16 (50 percent) free throws.

Emmett shot 29 percent (6/21) on treys, 39 percent (16/41) inside the arc, and just 42 percent (10/24) from the foul line.

Emmett won the battle on the boards, 45-43, although the Tigers made up a lot of the difference in the second half. Nick O'Briant led the Tigers with 12 rebounds, Jake Posey added eight.

Middleton 65

Mtn. Home 60

Playing again just 16 hours after their overtime game at Emmett, the Tigers once again fell behind early, but made another second half comeback, which fell short, as Middleton downed the Tigers 65-60 Saturday afternoon in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Middleton came out on fire, hitting four treys in the first quarter to race to an 18-8 first quarter lead. The Vikings continued their hot shooting in the second period, increasing their lead to 41-23 at halftime. Both teams scored just eight points in the third quarter and the Tigers trailed 49-31 heading into the fourth quarter.

Mountain Home scorched the nets for 29 points in the fourth quarter, but could get no closer than four points, 64-60, with 13 seconds left. The Vikings hit a free throw at the end to make it a 65-60 final.

"Actually, that is not our game plan to get down that far and have to come back. We are making some pretty good runs and some good comebacks," said Coach Kerfoot in radio comments after the game.

"I'm not sure what to say. I'm more worried about the first part of the games and trying to get us started so we don't get down 20 early. It was a hard week for the kids, and I'm not really sure how much we had left. I think that was part of it. We made a last push and it almost got us there. I literally think that that was our last bit of effort. We pretty much ran out of gas. That was our third game this week, and during finals week, and they've been through a lot."

Robert Moss led the Tigers with 21 points. Nick O'Briant had a double double, scoring 11 points and bringing down 10 rebounds. Nick Barrie added nine points, Kyle Kerfoot had eight, Chris Rau, four, Jake Posey, three, Chris Maholick and Brandon Doble each had two.

The Tigers hit five of 24 (21 percent) treys, Middleton seven of 22 (32 percent). Mountain Home hit 42 percent (19/45) of their two-pointers, the Vikings, a sizzling 64 percent (14/22). The Tigers shot a measly 54 percent (7/13) of their free throws, Middleton shot 70 percent (16/23).

The Tigers took a 1-5 conference mark and 3-9 overall record to Nampa last night to face the Bulldogs in conference play. They host the Kuna Kavemen Friday night.