Tigers beat BK, but lose at the buzzer to Emmett

The Mountain Home Tigers came away with a split of two-point conference ball games, winning at Bishop Kelly, and losing a heartbreaker at home to Emmett.

Mtn. Home 50

Bishop Kelly 48

The Mountain Home Tigers battled back to a half-time tie, and took the lead in the third quarter on their way to a 50-48 win over the Bishop Kelly Knights in conference boys basketball at Bishop Kelly Thursday night.

Mountain Home fell behind in the first quarter as the Knights had a hot-shooting opening quarter, and led the Tigers 16-10 after a quarter.

After falling behind 20-12 with 5:55 left in the half, the Tigers rallied to tie the game at 26-26 at the half.

A trey by Travis Gordon to start the third quarter gave Mountain Home its first lead, and they never trailed again, shooting out to a 37-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Bishop Kelly rallied late in the game, and on a basket and free throw by Jake Hardee with four seconds left, cut the margin to 50-48, and got the ball back with two seconds left after the Tigers turned the ball over on an offensive foul. The Knights tried to lob the ball in underneath for a basket and/or foul, but the pass was knocked away, and time expired on a 50-48 Mountain Home win.

"We needed that," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot of the win. "I thought we tried to give it back the best we could, even at the end with a couple of fouls that were very ill-advised, but I guess we got enough when we needed it and were able to get the win."

Jake Posey led the Tigers in scoring with 13 points, 11 of those in the first half. Kyle Kerfoot added nine points, including four of four from the free-throw line down the stretch in the fourth quarter. Jordan Cisna scored a season high eight points, Travis Gordon added seven, Alex Campbell scored five, Jake Hiler and Nick Barrie both had four points.

Emmett 60

Mtn. Home 58

Logan Staples scored only two points for Emmett Saturday night but it came at the final buzzer and gave the Huskies a come-from-behind 60-58 win over the Mountain Home Tigers in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

For a good three quarters it looked like Emmett's 70-63 win over Skyview at Skyview on Thursday night with first place on the line might have taken a lot out of the Huskies. Mountain Home shot out to a 9-0 lead and led 15-6 after a quarter.

The second quarter was more of the same, as Mountain Home built its lead to 34-14 with 2:33 left in the half. Jordan Taylor hit back-to-back treys to cut the lead to 34-20, but Nick Barrie canned one with 18 seconds left in the half -- his third in the quarter -- as Mountain Home took a 37-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Turnovers hurt the Tigers in the third quarter, as Emmett narrowed the Tiger lead to ten, 46-36, heading into the final quarter.

Emmett whittled the lead to six, early in the fourth, but a basket and free throw by Alex Campbell pushed the lead back to nine, 49-40, with 6:23 left.

Two free throws by Chris Maholick with 4:16 left pushed the lead back to double-digits, 52-41, but Emmett answered with a 9-0 run to cut the lead to two, 52-50, with less than three minutes left.

Travis Gordon scored with 1:43 left to make it 54-50, Tigers.

Two free throws by Nick Hovda with 1:36 left brought the Huskies back within two after a technical foul, and Hovda scored to tie the game a few seconds later.

A basket by Nick Barrie pushed the Tigers back out 56-54 with 1:14 left.

Nick Hovda scored to tie it at 56 and Jordan Taylor gave Emmett their first lead, 58-56, with 27 seconds left.

Nick Barrie sank two free throws to tie the game at 58, with 6.3 seconds left.

Logan Staples had trouble with a pass on the baseline, but managed to put up an off-balance shot at the buzzer that swished the net, giving Emmett a 60-58 conference win over the Tigers.

"We coached up the best we could and in that first half the kids came out and responded, and we needed four quarters of it," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "They came out fired up -- I knew they would -- they got chewed out pretty good at halftime, and they got us back on our heels in the second half, and we just didn't perform well in the second half.

"We didn't get in our offense, and a lot of that was their defense coming out and gambling. I thought they got away with an awful lot, and I thought things were a lot ticky-tack on us, and, boy, I hate to say it, but I thought we got homered at home!

"We didn't give up, and I think a big part of it though was we had a lot of kids getting in foul trouble, and that's why I tried to run some time early in the game because I knew we had so many guys getting in foul trouble. I wasn't going to try and stall it for a whole quarter, but I wanted to let some time off and get it down to the last four minutes because we had a lot of kids in foul trouble, and I didn't think we could hang on that long.

"We fell behind, but got two free throws down here, and a guy hits a fall-away out-of-bounds shot after he dropped it behind his back, that ball could have easily been out of bounds -- not that it was -- and I looked up and saw a tenth of a second left, so he got it off in time.

"I guess that's just the breaks. It's too bad. I told the kids we made some mistakes and did some things down the stretch and we don't get the reward for the great effort that we put forth, and I thought we really did put forth a great effort tonight.

"I went down to the locker room after the game and the message I told the kids was, 'okay, that's the best team in the league -- I don't think so -- I think the best team in the league is right here, if we can play four quarters like we did the first half.'"

Nick Barrie and Jake Posey both had double-doubles, as Barrie had a career high 20 points and 10 rebounds. Posey scored 13 points and brought down 15 rebounds.

Alex Campbell added eight points, Travis Gordon and Chris Maholick both had six, Jordan Cisna and Jake Hiler each had two, and Kyle Kerfoot netted one point and had six assists.

The Tigers dropped to 2-4 in league play and 3-8 overall.

Mountain Home faced Middleton last night in Middleton, and hosts Nampa Friday night at home in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.