Lady Tigers face off in district tourney

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers open the District III 4A Girls Basketball Tournament tonight at home against Kuna.

The Lady Tigers go in as the number three seed, and face sixth-seeded Kuna.

Last week the Lady Tigers closed out their regular season schedule with a win at Skyview and an overtime loss at home to Bishop Kelly.

Mtn. Home 49, Skyview 16

The Lady Tigers exploded for 27 points in the second quarter to break open a close game on their way to a 49-16 conference win at Skyview last Tuesday night.

After battling to a 6-6 first quarter tie, the Lady Tigers outscored Skyview 27-2 in the second quarter to go up 33-8 at the half. They led 43-14 after three and left Skyview with a 49-16 win.

"That was a nice win," said Mountain Home coach Brent Keener. "The girls really played well. I was really pleased."

Dakota Barrie and Blas Lord both scored in double figures -- Barrie had 12 and Lord 10. Barrie nearly had herself a triple double, pulling down 11 rebounds and handing out eight assists.

Shelby Posey added nine points, Angie Rios eight, Rachel Warila seven and Jessica Liercke three.

The Mountain Home Lady Tiger sophomores lost to Skyview and the JV team won.

Bishop Kelly 62, Mtn. Home 55 (OT)

The Lady Tigers battled back from a first-quarter deficit to lead most of the ball game, but Bishop Kelly battled back to force overtime, and in the overtime period the Lady Knights prevailed 62-55.

After a basket by Dakota Barrie put Mountain Home up 2-0, Bishop Kelly ran off six points. The Lady Tigers tied it at 6-6 with two minutes left in the quarter before Bishop Kelly put up eight points to take a 14-6 lead into the second.

Dakota Barrie and Shelby Posey combined for 15 of the 19 points Mountain Home scored in the second quarter, as they came back to take a 25-21 lead at halftime.

A 5-0 run by Bishop Kelly to start the third quarter put the Lady Knights up 26-25, but Mountain Home outscored Bishop Kelly 12-6 the rest of the quarter to go up 37-32 heading into the fourth quarter.

Bishop Kelly grabbed the lead, 40-39, with five minutes left in regulation on a trey by Erin Kelly, but Angie Rios scored to make it 41-40, Mountain Home with 4:02 left.

The game was tied at 44-44, and 45-45, before Megan Reibholtz scored to put the Lady Knights up 47-45 with ten seconds left.

Mountain Home called a timeout with 8.6 seconds left. Dakota Barrie got the inbounds pass and dribbled down and scored with a second left to tie the game at 47-47 and force overtime.

In the overtime period, Bishop Kelly grabbed an early 51-47 lead, but the Lady Tigers came back to tie the game at 51-51, with 1:54 left.

A trey by Erin Kelly put the Lady Knights up 54-51 with 1:35 left.

Two free throws by Charde Huntington brought Mountain Home back within one with 1:23 left, but Bishop Kelly sank six of seven free throws down the stretch to win 62-55 in overtime.

"That was a good high school basketball game," said Coach Keener afterwards. "I told the girls from here on out, it's going to be games of runs, and that's what tonight was.

"I said the key thing, and I hope it doesn't affect us, is we've only got two girls (Dakota Barrie and Rachel Warila) shooting well from the free-throw line," the coach added. "Those girls weren't at the free-throw line enough, so somehow we've got to knock down free throws. We really could have put that game away if we'd hit our free throws."

Barrie led the Lady Tigers with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Charde Huntington and Shelby Posey both netted 12 points, and Posey had 12 rebounds. Blas Lord and Angie Rios both added four points and Amanda Osborn had two points.

Mountain Home missed all three of their three-point attempts and shot 45 percent (22/49) inside the arc, but just 52 percent (11/21) from the free-throw line.

Bishop Kelly shot 50 percent (4/8) on treys, just 29 percent (16/56) on two-point shots, but 72 percent (18-25) from the foul line.

Mountain Home won the sophomore game, 33-20, but lost the JV game, 42-20.

The Lady Tigers finished their regular season schedule 14-5 overall and 10-4 in league play, which gave them the number three seed going into the District III 4A Girls Basketball Tournament.

The Lady Tigers host Kuna tonight at 7 p.m. in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium. Other first round action tonight has number one seed Middleton hosting Columbia, number two seed Bishop Kelly hosting Skyview, and number four seed Nampa hosting Emmett.

Tonight's higher seed winners and losers will host Saturday night's post-season competition.