Tigers improve with wins against Huskies, Bulldogs

The Mountain Home Tigers won two of three games last week, beating Emmett and Nampa, but losing at Columbia.

Tigers 51, Huskies 46

The Mountain Home Tigers picked up their second straight win Jan. 17 with a 51-46 victory over the Emmett Huskies.

The Tigers grabbed the lead early in the first quarter and led 15-10 after a quarter.

Emmett battled back to tie the game at 30-30 and took a 31-30 lead late in the second quarter, but the Tigers scored to go into the locker room at halftime up 32-31.

Mountain Home fell behind by three points late in the third quarter, but once again battled back to lead 40-39 heading into the fourth quarter.

Emmett took its last lead on a basket by Tobin Gordon with under four minutes remaining, but Brent Sexauer hit a trey to give the Tigers the lead, 45-44, with 3:35 left.

After an Emmett missed shot, the Tigers had the ball and J.T. Cristobal drained a three from the corner to up the lead to 48-44 with three minutes left.

Another Emmett miss and Mountain Home got the ball back, forcing Emmett to foul, but by the time they had fouled enough to put the Tigers at the free-throw line, just 44 seconds remained. J.T. Cristobal hit one of two free throws to make it 49-44.

After Emmett missed another three-point attempt, Ricky Castillo got the rebound and was fouled with 11.9 seconds left. Castillo sank both free throws to extend the lead to seven.

Emmett went down and threw up a three and missed but got the rebound and put it in at the buzzer to make it a 51-46 final.

Tiger basketball coach Tony Kerfoot was happy with the effort by his Tiger squad.

"It's awfully nice. It was very good to be able to bring one home. The emphasis tonight was, yeah, we got one on the road, but we wanted to be able to being it back home tonight, and to get two league games in a row, that definitely sets us in a little better spot, especially knowing that number nine doesn't get to go to districts.

"That's not over and done with, but Saturday we have a matchup with Nampa. We've got a couple games here -- this could be a real good week -- it's definitely a good time to be playing a lot better ball, and I think the kids answered when they needed to tonight."

J.T. Cristobal led a balanced Mountain Home scoring attack with ten points. Michael Daniels added nine, Brent Sexauer and Tyler Elliott both scored seven (for Elliot a new season high since coming up off the JV), Ricky Castillo and Tony McKenzie had six each (a new season high for McKenzie) and Alex Rodriguez and Luke Filipovich both scored two points.

Mountain Home shot 41 percent (20/49) from the field, hitting four of 15 (27 percent) treys, and shot 78 percent (7/9) from the free-throw line.

Emmett shot 36 percent (16/44) from the field, including 35 percent (6/17) three-pointers, and hit 67 percent (8/12) of their free throws.

Emmett won the battle of the boards 29-23. Ricky Castillo led the Tigers in rebounds with seven.

Columbia 50, Mountain Home 37

The Columbia Wildcats pulled away in the fourth quarter to down the Mountain Home Tigers 50-37 in conference play at Columbia Thursday night, snapping the Tigers' win streak at two.

Mountain Home managed an 11-10 lead after a quarter, but were down 16-15 at the half. They stayed close in the third quarter, trailing 29-25 after three, but the Wildcats, who shot 61 percent (14/23) in the second half, pulled away in the fourth for the 50-37 win.

"I think we got maybe too tied up in why our shots weren't dropping and we made some bad mistakes defensively," said Coach Kerfoot after the game.

"Their size, you have to throw a couple of things at it, and we had one day to get ready, and I guess I didn't do a very good job of teaching it, because we sure executed poorly defensively. I tried calling something and we weren't covering it. I just thought we executed poorly offensively, and we executed poorly defensively.

"Mentally, we've got to be sharper than what we were tonight"

Michael Daniels and Brent Sexauer both scored in double figures. Daniels scored 12 and Sexauer 10. J.T. Cristobal added nine, Alex Rodriguez three, Luke Filipovich two and Tyler Elliott one.

Mountain Home shot 31 percent (15/48) from the field, including making four of 15 (27 percent) long balls they put up. They went to the free-throw line just six times and made three of them for 50 percent.

Columbia ended the night shooting 46 percent (21/46) from the field, hitting 33 percent (4/12) of their three-pointers. They were 67 percent (4/6) from the foul line.

Columbia, behind 6' 6" Mogga Lado's 15 rebounds, dominated the boards 41-21. Ricky Castillo led Mountain Home, bringing down five rebounds.

Tigers 55, Bulldogs 49

The Mountain Home Tigers came through down the stretch at the free-throw line Saturday night to hold off the Nampa Bulldogs 55-49 in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home. The win avenged an earlier loss at Nampa.

Mountain Home led 12-10, after a quarter, but fell behind by six midway through the second quarter. They battled back within one, 23-22, at the half. They took the lead in the third quarter and were up 32-28 heading into the fourth period.

The Tigers built their lead to nine, 39-30, with 5:20 left in the game.

Nampa battled back to within two, 51-49, with 10.5 seconds left, but Ricky Castillo and Brent Sexauer both hit two free throws to make it a 55-49 final.

"We struggled because they hustle and they scrap and they've played about everybody close, they just haven't been able to win any," the coach said. "I thought we sucked it up tonight and made plays when we needed to down the stretch."

Michael Daniels led the Tigers with a season-high 14 points. Brent Sexauer added 12, Ricky Castillo 11 and J.T. Cristobal 10. Luke Filipovich had four points, Dion Salinas two and Alex Rodriguez and Tyler Elliott both had one point.

Mountain Home shot 37 percent (15/41) from the field, hitting four of 13 ( 31 percent) treys. They sank 72 percent (21/29) from the free-throw line, including 14 of 19 (74 percent) in the fourth quarter.

Nampa shot 40 percent (17/42) from the field, including five of 18 (28 percent) three-pointers. They shot 56 percent (10/18) from the foul line.

Nampa edged the Tigers on the boards 27-23. Brent Sexauer and Alex Rodriguez led the Tigers with four rebounds apiece.

The win improved the Tigers to 3-7 in league play and 3-11 overall.

They host Caldwell Friday night and Skyview Saturday night in conference action in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

"I know we felt we could have beat (Caldwell) over at their place," the coach said. "That was a game we put a blank up in the first quarter and didn't score at all, and we were down ten to start with. I think the kids really think that they can get that one, and Skyview's up there and I think they're really capable of playing a good game. I think they're a young team, and they may not travel real well, so that's kind of what I'm hoping.

With the right attitude and a good week of practice to get ready, "we can get one, maybe two next week," the coach added. "I was happy to get two this week."