Loss ends Lady Tigers' quest for state championship

After their loss to Bishop Kelly in the semi-finals of the District III 4A Girls Basketball Tournament on Feb. 6 put them in the consolation bracket, the Mountain Home Lady Tigers quest to return to state meant winning three straight.

They accomplished the first two, including taking third at the district tourney, but they came up short in their state play-in game Saturday at Burley against Rigby.

Mtn. Home 50, Emmett 30

Despite a sloppy ball game featuring 98 turnovers, the Mountain Home Lady Tigers jumped out to a big lead that proved more than enough to beat the Emmett Lady Huskies, 50-30, last Tuesday at Kuna.

The Mountain Home press accounted for an 11-0 lead in the first 90 seconds of the ball game as the Lady Tigers turned Emmett turnovers into points. Turnovers highlighted the rest of the game, which turned sloppy.

Mountain Home led 13-5 after a quarter and built it to 19-5 before the Lady Huskies got back within eight, 21-13. A 9-0 run to end the first half made it 30-13 at halftime.

An 11-0 run to start the third quarter put the Lady Tigers up 41-13 with under three minutes left in the quarter and it was 43-19 after three. A basket and free throw by Dakota Barrie to start the fourth quarter gave Mountain Home its biggest lead of the game, 46-19. The game ended 50-30, Mountain Home.

"That was a great start," said Mountain Home coach Brent Keener. "We were able to put some full-court pressure on them and scored some buckets early and got easy transition buckets. After that I thought we missed some really good looks, and we couldn't put any more full-court pressure on them because we couldn't make any shots any more."

Blas Lord led the Mountain Home scoring with 15 points. Dakota Barrie netted 13 and Shelby Posey added 12. Charde Huntington had eight points and Angie Rios scored two. Mountain Home hit one of three three-point shots and shot 53 percent inside the arc. They were a dismal 9-for-21 from the free-throw line.

Emmett also hit 33 percent on treys, but were 11-for-31 on two-pointers and just 29 percent at the foul line.

Mountain Home out-rebounded Emmett 31-18, led by Shelby Posey with 13. Emmett committed 51 turnovers while Mountain Home turned the ball over 47 times.

Mtn. Home 49, Nampa 46

The Emmett win put the Lady Tigers in the third-place game last Thursday against Nampa. Holding the Lady Bulldogs to just two points in the third quarter and building up a double-digit lead, Mountain Home withstood a 23-point barrage by Nampa in the fourth to win 49-46.

The game went back and forth early, with Mountain Home up 11-9 after a quarter. After Dakota Barrie scored early in the second quarter to put the Lady Tigers up 13-9, Nampa went on an 8-0 run to go up 17-13. Nampa led 21-18 at the half.

Nampa managed just one basket by Amy Koenig with 4:08 left in the third quarter, as the Lady Bulldogs went 1 for 12 from the field in the quarter, while the Lady Tigers scored 17 points to take a 35-23 lead going into the final quarter.

Nampa's Marina Quintana, who missed her first five three-point attempts, hit three in a row in the fourth, sparking a 23-point quarter by the Lady Bulldogs. Sarah Inman's basket with a minute left pulled Nampa within two, 45-43, but Mountain Home made four of six free throws down the stretch to ice the win.

"We had that great third quarter and withstood their comeback in the fourth and knocked down some free throws, which was huge," said Coach Keener. "Our bench stepped up huge."

Dakota Barrie, Blas Lord and Shelby Posey each scored in double figures -- Barrie had 14, Lord 13 and Posey 10. Charde Huntington added six and Angie Rios and Rachel Warila both scored three points.

Rigby 42, Mtn. Home 34

Last year's third-place finish at district earned the Lady Tigers a state tourney berth, but this year the third-place effort was not good enough. They would have to win a play-in game Saturday at Burley against Rigby, the District VI runner-up, in order to qualify for state.

The game was a defensive struggle, with Mountain Home managing an 11-10 lead after a quarter. The first half ended in a 16-16 tie.

The third quarter was a good quarter for the Lady Tigers in the district tourney, where they had outscored their opponents, 60-21, so when they they jumped out to a 20-16 lead in the first 75 seconds of the third quarter Mountain Home fans were hoping for more of the same. But the Lady Tigers would not score again until the final seconds of the quarter while Rigby went on a 16-0 run to build up a 32-22 lead heading into the fourth.

The two teams traded baskets in the final period until Mountain Home finally rallied in the last two minutes, cutting the gap to 39-34 with 42 seconds left. Rigby hit three of six free throws down the stretch to make it a 42-34 final.

"You can't play two quarters and expect to win," said Coach Keener.

Dakota Barrie led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 12 points. Shelby Posey added nine and brought down 16 rebounds. Angie Rios scored five points, Blas Lord and Charde Huntington both had three and Rachel Warila had two.

Both teams hit three treys and 10 two-point field goals. The difference ended at the charity stripe, where Rigby made 13 of 21, while Mountain Home connected on five of 11.

The Lady Tigers finished 17-7 overall, and finished third in both the conference and district tourney.

Coach Keener agreed it was a good season, saying the team is "obviously disappointed that it ends now because we know we're one of the top eight teams in the state."

Keener loses seven seniors to graduation this year and says they will be missed.

"We lose quite a bit. We lose seniors who have put in a lot of time to this program over the last few years, some three-year varsity players, so that's going to make it tough."