Tigers snap losing streak with win over Bulldogs

The Mountain Home Tigers snapped a four-game losing streak Friday night at Nampa after dropping a game at home to Middleton earlier in the week.

Middleton 65, Mountain Home 52

The Middleton Vikings shot out to a big lead in the first quarter, which proved to be the difference in the game, as the Mountain Home Tigers lost 65-52 last Tuesday night in conference boys basketball in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The Vikings shot 60 percent (9/15) in the first quarter as they jumped out to an early 23-8 lead, and led 23-12 after a quarter.

Mountain Home was unable to cut into the lead in the second quarter as the Vikings extended their lead to 35-20 at the half.

The Tigers were not able to make much of a rally in the third quarter either, and trailed 48-36 heading into the fourth. Mountain Home did manage to cut the lead to single digits in the fourth quarter, shaving it to 57-49 with 1:26 left on a basket and free-throw by Tyler Casey, and again at 60-52 after an Anthony Barboza trey with 36 seconds left, but could come no closer, falling 65-52.

"We took the first quarter off tonight," Coach Tony Kerfoot said. "It was a rough first quarter. We gave up way too many points. Credit them, they came out shooting some shots we haven't seen a lot of people make. They were quite a ways out there, and we didn't get out there to them. We had to make some adjustments after that and we did that okay, we were just a little too far down to make a real good comeback."

Aaron Hobbs led the Tigers in scoring with 17 points. Tyler Wright netted 10 points, Tyler Casey added nine, Anthony Barboza six, Brent Sexauer and Anthony Castillo both had four and Ricky Castillo two.

Mountain Home shot 36 percent (23/64) from the field, hitting just two of 16 treys (13 percent). They only went to the free-throw line eight times and could convert only four of their shots.

Middleton shot well the whole ball game from the field, hitting 56 percent (25 of 45) of their shots, including four of 12 long balls. They shot a dismal 39 percent (11 of 28) from the foul line.

The Viking won the rebound battle 35-28. Tyler Wright led Mountain Home with 12 boards.

Mountain Home 68, Nampa 41

Saturday night's game at Nampa was just what the doctor ordered for a Mountain Home Tiger boys basketball team that has struggled with consistency all season long.

The Tigers put four good quarters together to down the Nampa Bulldogs 68-41.

An 11-0 run midway through the first quarter helped Mountain Home shoot out to a 15-3 lead. They led 15-8 after a quarter.

The Tigers steadily increased their lead every quarter, stretching it to 32-18 at halftime and 50-28 after three. Mountain Home enjoyed its biggest lead of the night, 66-36, with under a minute left and coasted in from there, 68-41.

"That goes a long way into helping things, both offensively and defensively," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "That was kind of the goal tonight. When we came out at half-time I said what the score was at half, I wanted it doubled, and I know there with inside of a minute left, it was exactly doubled -- 64-36 -- so we didn't let up because we had a lead at half, we came out and finished it the second half.

"I still saw the defensive intensity in the second half,and I think other games we haven't had that when we've had the lead, so it was much better."

The Tigers, who set a new season high in scoring with 68 points, had four players score in double figures. Tyler Wright led the way with 18 points on nine of ten shooting. Anthony Castillo netted a new season-high 17 points, J.T. Cristobal and Aaron Hobbs both added 12 (for Cristobal, a new season high as well), Tyler Casey, Anthony Barboza, James Simon and Justin Connolly each scored two and Brent Sexauer had one point.

The Tigers shot a sizzling 56 percent (31 of 55) from the field, hit three of eight (38 percent) from three-point land and shot 60 percent (3 of 5) from the free-throw line.

Nampa ended up shooting 41 percent (15 of 37) from the field, hitting 38 percent (5 of 13) of their treys and 6 of 10 from the foul line.

Mountain Home edged the Bulldogs 22-21 in rebounds, led by Tyler Wright with seven. The win improved the Tigers to 4-8 in conference and 6-11 overall.

Mountain Home has home games today, Feb. 9, against Kuna and Friday night against Wood River. The Tigers close out their regular season schedule Saturday night at Columbia.

Coach Kerfoot hopes to use the momentum from the Nampa game to finish out the regular season.

"We've got three games next week and it's a good time to have some momentum. Hopefully we'll ride the momentum from this right into that and have some fun next week."