Lady Tigers showcase potential

How good are the Mountain Home Lady Tigers basketball team?

Time will tell, but last Tuesday night's 55-46 win over Jerome showed they have the potential to be great.

Mountain Home fell behind early to Jerome and trailed the visiting Lady Tigers 13-9 after a quarter.

Mountain Home finally took its first lead of the ballgame right before halftime, when Arlene Futch hit a jump shot from the corner with two seconds left to give Mountain Home a 28-27 lead going into the locker room.

Mountain Home built up a seven-point lead, 36-29, midway through the third quarter, before Aubree Callen led a 7-0 Jerome run to tie the game at 36-36 with 2:02 left in the quarter.

Jessica Liercke drained a three from out front moments later to put the home team back in the lead. The Lady Tigers led 44-36 heading into the fourth quarter.

A trey by Dakota Barrie at the 4:40 mark put Mountain Home up by 11, 49-38.

Jerome managed to whittle the lead down to six, 49-43, with 1:45 left, but a basket by Dakota Barrie, and two free throws by Blas Lord with 42 seconds left pushed the lead back to 10, 53-43.

Mountain Home won the game, 55-46.

Mountain Home Lady Tiger basketball coach Brent Keener was happy to get the win.

"That was, by far, the best win that I've witnessed since I've been here," he said. "That first half was great. We got down early, but we battled back into it. (Arlene) Futch hit that huge bucket right before half, and then we built up that 11-point lead. I think we answered tremendously."

Blas Lord and Rachel Warila both scored in double figures. Lord had 16 points and Warila 12. Dakota Barrie added nine points, Jessica Liercke had seven, Shelby Posey had five, Charde Huntington scored four and Arlene Futch had two points for the game.

Coach Keener saw the Jerome win as a confidence booster as they look ahead to their SIC 4A conference opener with Middleton.

"That's going to be a huge confidence builder for us. Middleton's going to be tough. Middleton brings everyone back except Hancock, and they're loaded, so we've got to be ready to play."

The Lady Tigers travel to Jerome on Dec. 1 and get back in conference play on Dec. 3 at Emmett.