Tigers drop conference games to Columbia, Nampa

The Mountain Home Tigers opened their conference boys basketball schedule last week with losses to Columbia and Nampa.

Columbia 60, Mountain Home 55

The Mountain Home Tigers let one get away from them last Thursday night, as they fell to the Columbia Wildcats 60-55 in their SIC 4A conference opener in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers spotted Columbia three points before going on a 9-0 run to lead 9-3. Mountain Home led 18-11 after a quarter.

Mountain Home built its lead to 29-14 midway through the second quarter, but the Wildcats battled back to make it 29-22 at halftime.

The Tigers went up 36-24 with 5:05 left in the third before Columbia fought back to within four, 37-33, with 2:18 left in the quarter. Mountain Home led 41-34 heading into the final quarter.

J.T. Cristobal's third trey of the night upped the Tigers' lead to 48-34 with 5:35 left in the game. But Mountain Home missed the front-end of three one-and-one's as the Wildcats clawed their way back, finally tying the game at 50-50 with 2:30 left.

Mountain Home got two free throws each from Brent Sexauer and Ricky Castillo to push back up to a 54-50 lead, with 1:31 left, but the Wildcats fought back to tie the game at 54-54 with 57 seconds left.

Ricky Castillo hit one of two free throws to put the Tigers up 55-54 with 33 seconds left, but Michael Ruby hit two free throws with 10.3 seconds left to give Columbia the lead, 56-55.

Mountain Home turned the ball over on the inbounds pass and Michael Ruby hit two more free throws to make it 58-55 with 7.9 seconds left.

The Tigers again turned the ball over on the inbounds pass and Parker Albertson hit two free throws with 6.9 seconds left to make it a 60-55 final.

"We played well enough, but we didn't play well enough for four quarters, and we've got to round out our game" said Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot after the game. "We didn't take care of the ball very well down the stretch and didn't take advantage of opportunities."

While the coach felt his team did a good job in the first half of making and taking advantage of opportunities, "once we got a good lead, we also got in foul trouble. We kind of shelled up a little bit, and we weren't as good then. That allowed them to let their size take over."

J.T. Cristobal led the Tigers in scoring with a season-high 15 points, Ricky Castillo added 14 and Brent Sexauer put in 12. Dion Salinas scored seven points and Michael Daniels six.

The Tigers hit 25 percent (7/28) on three-pointers, 40 percent (10/25) on two-pointers, and shot 58 percent (14/24) from the free-throw line. They hit 7 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter, missing three straight front ends of one-and-one foul shots.

Columbia shot 38 percent (3/8) on treys, just 32 percent (15/46) inside the arc, and 62 percent (21/34) from the foul line, including 13 of 16 in the fourth quarter.

The Wildcats, who had two players six-feet, six inches, one six feet, five inches and one six feet, seven inches, dominated the boards, 48-24. Dion Salinas and Ricky Castillo led the Tiger rebound effort with ten and eight rebounds, respectively.

Nampa 60, Mountain Home 32

The Mountain Home Tigers played like they forgot to get off the bus Saturday night at Nampa, as the Bulldogs shot their way to a 60-32 win.

The Tigers missed all 11 shots they took in the first quarter as Nampa led 10-0 after the first period. The Tigers managed just 8 percent shooting (2/26) for the first half and trailed 27-7 at the half.

Mountain Home did put up 16 points in the third quarter, but could not make up much ground against the Bulldogs, who shot well all night. The end result was a 60-32 loss to Nampa for the Tigers.

"We were really flat tonight," said Coach Kerfoot after the game. "Two teams in the same situation. They came off a tough loss to Emmett, we came off a tough loss to Columbia, but they were a lot more ready to play than we were. We just didn't get to it tonight at all.

Looking back, the coach said the Nampa squad totally "outhustled" the Mountain Home squad.

"I thought we were standing around a lot. We've got to play with a lot more heart than that and a lot more pride than that, because tonight wasn't very good," he added.

Ricky Castillo led the Tigers scoring effort with 10 points. Doug Long had a season-high eight points, Brent Sexauer and Luke Filipovich both scored four and Dion Salinas and Michael Daniels rounded out the scoring with three points apiece.

Mountain Home connected on four of 22 (18 percent) of their three-point shots, and just 19 percent (5/27) two-pointers. They hit 59 percent (10/17) of their free throws.

Nampa shot well from the field, hitting 70 percent (7/10) on treys, and 55 percent (18/33) inside the arc. They did have their problems at the free throw line, hitting only three of 14 (21 percent).

Nampa edged the Tigers 27-25 in rebounds. Brent Sexauer led the Tigers with five boards.

The Tigers have two games on the road this week. They were at Caldwell last night (Tuesday), and travel to Skyview Thursday night.

"From what I've seen so far, we don't travel very well," Coach Kerfoot said. "On next week's agenda will be let's learn how to travel. Learn how to pack our bags and go somewhere else and remember to play.

"We've got to pick it up and we've got to put it together, and maybe I've got to look somewhere else," he added. "Maybe I don't have the right people there right now."

The Tigers have after Christmas games scheduled on Dec. 29 and 30 at home against Twin Falls and Jerome.