Tigers fall twice in close games

Mountain Home failed to finish last week, losing two close games to Kuna and Columbia in SIC 4A boys basketball.

Kuna 36, Mountain Home 34

Taylor Tolbert scored with five seconds left to lift the Kuna Kavemen to a 36-34 win over the Mountain Home Tigers last Thursday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The loss was a crushing blow to the Tigers. Mountain Home had made a 14-0 run that had put them up 32-23 with three minutes left in the game.

Mountain Home grabbed an early 4-0 lead before the Kavemen came back to tie it at 4-4. A trey by Brock Morris put the Tigers up 7-4, but Kuna rallied to take a 9-7 lead into the second quarter.

The Tigers fell behind by four in the second quarter but rallied to tie the game at 12-12 with 2:50 left in the half. It was 14-13, Kuna, at halftime.

Mountain Home fell behind, 21-15, in the third, and with Kuna up 23-18 with 2:12 left in the quarter, the Tigers went on a 14-0 run that carried over into the fourth, and gave them a seemingly insurmountable 32-23 lead with 2:59 left in the game.

But the Kavemen battled back, and Michael Gordon's basket with a minute left brought Kuna back within one, 32-31.

Tyler Wright scored with 48 seconds left to make it 34-31, Tigers, but Chase Hathhorn drained a three from the corner -- Kuna's only trey of the game --with 30 seconds left to tie the game at 34-34.

Mountain Home failed to score on its next possession, and Kuna got the ball and called timeout with 13 seconds left. Then they worked the ball into the 6'4" senior, Taylor Tolbert, who scored with five seconds left.

Mountain Home hurried down the floor and David Bitrick's trey went off the rim as the Tigers found themselves on the short end of another close ballgame.

"That's just one of those things," said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot. "With 2:40 left in the game, we had held them to 23 points, and then give up 13 in the last 2:40. That's awful tough. A little credit to Kuna, they made the plays, they got after us, put pressure on us and we didn't withhold the pressure.

"I thought defensively, we had a great effort. I thought we did a good job on the boards, did a lot of things pretty well, but offensively, not so good. Hopefully, we'll still a work in progress to get it all tied in."

Brock Morris led the Tigers with a season-high 10 points. Tyler Wright netted eight points, David Bitrick added seven, Trevor Woodruff four, Aaron Hobbs three and Anthony Castillo two.

Mountain Home hit just three of 14 (21 percent) three-point shots, 31 percent (9/29) inside the arc and 58 percent (7/12) from the free-throw line. Kuna made just one of 12 (8 percent) long balls -- that by Chase Hathhorn to tie the game at 34-34, shot 35 percent (12/34) on two-point shots and 69 percent (9/13) from the charity stripe.

The rebound battle was close, 28-27, in favor of Kuna, with Trevor Woodruff and Tyler Wright leading Mountain Home with ten and seven, respectively.

In the preliminary games, the Mountain Home sophomores lost 45-29 and the JV won 50-41.

Columbia 55, Mountain Home 51

After leading most of the first half Friday night at Columbia, the Tigers fell behind in the third quarter and stayed close but were never able to battle back and take the lead, losing 55-51, as the win-starved Wildcats picked up their first victory of the season.

J.T. Cristobal's basket with 1:25 left in the first half gave the Tigers their biggest lead, 27-20. They led 29-23 at the half.

Columbia's Mitch Loar, who had scored 27 points the night before at Skyview, came alive in the second half, scoring nine of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter as the Wildcats outscored Mountain Home 17-6 in the third to take a 40-35 lead into the final quarter.

The Wildcats, with seven more points from Mitch Loar in the fourth, kept the Tigers at bay.

Poor free-throw shooting by Mountain Home also hurt them in the fourth, as they made just three of ten shots from the line, and Columbia prevailed 55-51.

"We let the pressure eat us up that third quarter and a little bit in the second quarter," said Coach Kerfoot in comments after the game. "Actually, the first half I thought we played great. The third quarter the pressure got to us and they got on a run and we couldn't get back. We can't allow runs like that because we don't score big bunches in a hurry.

"I thought our effort was good. We just let some pressure eat us up," the coach added.

Tyler Wright led the Tigers in scoring with 10 points. Brock Morris and Colton Zamora both added seven, Anthony Castillo and Aaron Hobbs both had six, Cody Ramos five, J.T. Cristobal and David Bitrick each had four and Trevor Woodruff two.

Mountain Home shot 23 percent (3/13) on three-point shots, 42 percent (18/43) on two-pointers and just 43 percent (6/14) on free throws.

Columbia hit just 19 percent (3/16) on long balls but was 52 percent (17/33) inside the arc and 75 percent (12/16) at the free-throw line.

Columbia edged the Tigers 29-28 on the boards with Cody Ramos and Tyler Wright leading Mountain Home with nine and eight, respectively.

Both preliminary games were also close, with Mountain Home taking the sophomore game 38-36 and the JV Tigers losing in overtime, 38-37.

The Tigers, who dropped to 2-8 overall and 1-5 in conference action, hosted Skyview last night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium to complete the first time around in conference play.

They start the second time through the conference schedule Friday night when they travel to Bishop Kelly to face the Knights.