Tigers defeat Middleton

The Mountain Home Tigers came away with a split of their boys basketball games last week, winning on the road at Middleton and losing at home to Nampa.

Mtn. Home 46

Middleton 43

Tough defense and a never-say-die attitude helped the Mountain Home Tigers get past the Middleton Vikings 46-43 last Wednesday night at Middleton in SIC 4A conference basketball.

Tyler Okamura hit a trey in the opening minute of the game to put the Vikings up 3-0, but they wouldn't score again until Alex Waltman's basket with 3:10 left gave the Vikings a 5-0 lead.

Jake Posey hit a free throw to get the Tigers on the scoreboard with 2:04 left in the period, and Mountain Home got baskets from Nick O'Briant and Nick Barrie in the final minute to tie the score at 5-5 after a quarter.

The lead went back and forth in the second period, with Mountain Home scoring the final six points of the quarter to take a 20-15 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Tigers built up a nine-point lead, 26-17, early in the third period, and led 35-30 heading into the final period. A trey by Brandon Doble to start the fourth put the Tigers up 38-30, but then Middleton's Dillon Laan hit three three-point shots to tie the game at 39-39 with 5:25 left.

A basket by Jake Posey put the Tigers up 41-39 a minute later, but Drew Scott hit a shot to tie it at 41-41 with 3:14 left.

Jake Posey hit one of two free throws to push the Tigers ahead 42-31 with 2:14 left. Nick Barrie hit one of two with 1:18 left to make it 43-41. Another one-for-two effort by Barrie made it 44-41 with 31.1 seconds left.

Trent Harrison sank two free throws with 29.6 seconds left to bring the Vikings back to within a point, 44-43.

Robert Moss and Nick Barrie both hit free throws down the stretch to make it a 46-43 final.

Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot was pleased to see his Tigers put together four quarters of good basketball.

"I thought that was a big improvement with us playing four quarters of defense tonight, and I think the other stuff, we've been seeing signs that its getting through, and we finally put it together for four quarters. We kind of weathered the storm a little bit, too.

"Some other games, the other team might get hot and hit a few threes and we're buried and we don't come back. They (Middleton) did that (hit some three-point shots), and we did weather the storm, so I think there's some signs there that we've learned from some previous games where, hopefully they're learning where we're falling apart and what we have to withstand, and I thought we did a good job of that."

Robert Moss and Jake Posey both scored in double figures for the Tigers at Middleton, Moss with 15, Posey, 13. Nick Barrie netted seven points, Nick O'Briant, six, and Brandon Doble, five.

Nampa 57

Tigers 43

The Tigers closed out their regular season schedule at home against the Nampa Bulldogs Friday night, and lost to the Bulldogs 57-43.

Nampa took the lead early and led all the way. It was 20-9 after a quarter, 32-14 at halftime, and 46-23, after three.

With Nampa going to their bench more in the fourth, the Tigers were able to come back and make it a 57-43 final.

Despite the loss, Coach Kerfoot saw some positives in the game to build on.

"I think, number one, we never gave up at any point in time, and I think the kids played hard and they kept hustling, and I want to thank the kids for doing that, and that helped, and there at the end, they (Nampa) put in some of their subs and we started making some ground up.

"Early in the game, we didn't get a good flow offensively, so we were kind of struggling that way. We stopped and didn't move as much and what we have to do is improve that movement to beat the size, and we did the opposite of what was needed."

Robert Moss led the Tigers in scoring with 16 points, Nick O'Briant added 13. Brandon Doble netted nine, Jake Posey, four, and Nick Barrie, one.

Mountain Home finished their regular season schedule 5-15 overall, and went 3-11 in conference play, which gave them the number seven seed entering district tournament play last night at Nampa against the number two seeded Bulldogs. Other first-round action last night had number one seed Bishop Kelly hosting eight seed Columbia, third-seeded Skyview hosting number six seed Kuna, and number four seed Middleton hosting fifth-seeded Emmett.

The district tourney resumes Saturday night at the higher seeds, with the tourney moving to Skyview next week for the final three nights.