Tiger JV boys basketball loses to Jerome, Middleton

The Mountain Home Tigers JV boys basketball team came up on the short end of their two games last week.

Jerome 61

Mtn. Home 49

Mountain Home led most of the first half, but lost the lead in the second half and never could get it back as Jerome beat Mountain Home 61-49 in boys JV basketball action in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium last Tuesday night.

The lead went back and forth in the first quarter, with Jerome hitting a basket in the closing seconds to lead 13-12 after a quarter. A 12-2 lead by Mountain Home shot the home team to a 24-17 lead with three minutes to go in the half, but Jerome shot their way back to a 27-27 tie at the half.

After Anthony Castillo hit two free throws to put Mountain Home back in the lead, 29-27, Jerome went on a 9-0 run to go up 36-29. Mountain Home managed to cut the deficit to one, at 38-37, with 2:48 left in the quarter, but Jerome shot back out to a 46-39 lead after three.

Mountain Home could get no closer than eight points in the fourth, as the hot-shooting visiting Tigers made it a season sweep over Mountain Home, winning 61-49.

Anthony Castillo had a season-high 19 points to lead the Mountain Home scoring.

Anthony Hobbs added 11 points in his first game of the season for the Tigers. Drew Hopkins scored five points, Cody Ramos, Brock Morris and Damian Soliz each had four, and Jordan Warila added two.

Middleton 63

Mtn. Home 47

Mountain Home went scoreless for nearly seven minutes in the fourth quarter Friday night as the Middleton J.V. boys pulled away for a 63-47 conference win at Middleton.

Middleton shot out to a 9-0 lead, and led at one point, 15-5, but Mountain Home battled back to within two, 17-15 with 1:32 left in the quarter. The Vikings closed out the quarter on a 6-0 run to lead 23-15 after one.

Anthony Castillo scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the second quarter, as Mountain Home took a 33-32 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The Tigers fell behind in the third quarter, but were only two down 44-42 heading into the fourth quarter, that despite going 0/6 at the free-throw line in the quarter.

Things got worse for the Tigers in the final quarter, as they could not get any shots to drop, and fell behind 62-42 before Tom Hennessey hit a trey with 1:06 left in the ball game. The final score was 63-47, Middleton.

Anthony Castillo led the Tigers in scoring with 15 points, Tom Hennessey and Aaron Hobbs both scored eight, Cody Ramos added five, Tyler Wright four, Damian Soliz three and Drew Hopkins and Brock Morris both finished with two.

The Tigers dropped to 0-5 on the season and 0-1 in conference play.