Tigers continue to struggle at hoop with 3 loses

The Mountain Home Tigers were in all three games they played last week, but dropped all three in boys basketball action.

Skyview 68, Mountain Home 61

The Mountain Home Tigers battled the Skyview Hawks tough, but fell short, 68-61, in their conference opener in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium last Tuesday.

After falling behind 5-0 in the early going, the Tigers rallied to take a 10-9 lead with 30 seconds left in the first quarter. Skyview hit the final four points of the quarter to take a 13-10 lead into the second quarter.

Mountain Home tied the game at 13-13 on Anthony Castillo's trey early in the second, and tied it again at 22-22, on a basket by Aaron Hobbs with 2:00 left in the half. A trey at the buzzer by Skyview's Kyle Dranginis gave the Hawks a 29-25 lead at halftime.

Skyview built up a 47-34 lead with 2:25 left in the third quarter, but the Tigers rallied to within seven, 50-43, after three.

The Tigers hung close and cut the Skyview lead to four, 58-54, about half-way through the final quarter, but missed their opportunities to get any closer, falling short 68-61.

Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot was pleased with the effort by his Tigers.

"I thought the kids played hard," the coach said. "We just made a few mental breakdowns here and there defensively, and Dranginis showed why he's got a full-ride to Gonzaga."

Three Tigers scored in double figures in the game. Aaron Hobbs and Tyler Wright both had 15 -- for Wright a new season high, and he also had a double-double, with 13 rebounds. Tyler Casey had a new season high with 13 points. Anthony Castillo and Anthony Barboza both added five points, James Simon had a season-high four, Justin Connolly and Luke Filipovich both netted two, which for Filipovich were his first varsity points.

Jerome 39, Mountain Home 28

Tuesday night's Skyview game took a lot out of the Tigers as they went the next night to Jerome for a battle with the Jerome Tigers.

Mountain Home played great defense, but could not get many shots to drop for them, especially in the second half, as Jerome won 39-28.

Jerome shot out to an early lead and led 14-10 after a quarter.

They stretched it to double digits before Mountain Home rallied to within two, 20-18, at the half.

Mountain Home could not get many shots to drop in the second half, but stayed within striking distance, 30-25, heading into the final eight minutes. Aaron Hobb's trey were the only points the visitors could get to fall in the fourth, as Jerome won 39-28.

"We didn't have legs tonight," Kerfoot said. "We spent it last night (against Skyview). You hold a team under 40 points, you expect to win. We had a lot of shots that were in-rattle-out, and they were just dead legs.

"I thought they gave it everything they had," he added. "They were trying as hard as they could, but when you can't put a point up, it's tough to win a game."

Aaron Hobbs led the Tigers with 12 points. Tyler Wright added seven, Anthony Barboza scored four, Anthony Castillo three, and Tyler Casey two.

Mountain Home shot 27 percent (11/41) from the field for the game, and only 14 percent (3/22) in the second half. Jerome did not shoot much better, hitting 29 percent (13/45) of their shots.

Jerome controlled the battle of the boards, 39-26. Aaron Hobbs led Mountain Home with nine rebounds.

Bishop Kelly 48, Mountain Home 33

The Tigers played their third game in four nights Friday night at Bishop Kelly and played good for a half, but a poor third quarter did the Tigers in, as they lost to the Knights 48-33 in conference action.

Bishop Kelly hit just one of 12 shots in the first quarter, as the Tigers led 7-3 after a quarter. The Knights shooting woes continued in the second quarter and Mountain Home stretched the lead to 17-7 with under a minute left in the half. They led 17-9 at halftime.

The Knights came out ready to play in the third quarter and heated up their shooting, hitting eight of 14 shots in the third quarter, including four treys to shoot to a 30-21 lead after three.

Bishop Kelly increased its lead to 15 points in the final quarter before the Tigers rallied to within eight, 41-33, with 2:15 left. But Mountain Home did not score again and the Knights ran off the final seven points for a 48-33 win.

As to Bishop Kelly's second-half effort, Tiger coach Tony Kerfoot blamed it on his team's second-half let down.

"I think it was more us than them, but that's what I saw," the coach said. "We didn't do much in the second half. We didn't execute our offense, we were not sharp at it at all, we weren't working for good shots and we weren't moving. Defensively, we were standing flat-footed, and if we're going to play like that, we're going to get beat pretty bad."

Anthony Barboza and Tyler Casey led the Tigers' scoring effort with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Tyler Wright added six points, Anthony Castillo scored three and Aaron Hobbs had two points.

Mountain Home shot just 26 percent (12/46) from the field, including three of 10 three-pointers. They hit 86 percent (6/7) of their free throws.

Bishop Kelly shot 68 percent (15/22) from the field in the second half and ended up shooting 42 percent (19/45). The Knights also hit four of 14 long balls. They shot 75 percent (6/8) from the charity stripe.

The Tigers head into the holiday break 2-5 overall and 0-2 in league play. They are off until Jan. 4 when they host Emmett in conference play in Mountain Home.