Tigers end season with losses to Middleton, Emmett

The Mountain Home Tigers hoped to gain some momentum for the district tournament by picking at least one win in their final two regular season contests. Instead, the Tigers, who struggled most of the season, suffered two losses.

Middleton 54, Mountain Home 44

The Mountain Home Tigers fell behind early and never were able to catch up to the hot-shooting Middleton Vikings on Feb. 7 in a 44-54 conference loss.

The Vikings jumped out to a 15-3 lead and continued to dominate the court, 17-10, after a quarter. They had their biggest lead of the night in the second quarter with a 14-point advantage before Mountain Home battled back to within eight, 31-23, at the half.

It seemed every time Mountain Home would try to make a run, the Vikings would answer in the second half. After three quarters, Middleton was up by 11. The Vikings stayed hot and held off the Tigers for the win.

"I thought we did a good job trying to get back in it," said Tigers basketball coach Tony Kerfoot, "But about the only thing I could only see was we missed some easy shots inside I'd like to have back. We've got to get those to drop or we're not going to have a chance to win too many games."

While the Tigers had some offensive rebounds and put-back opportunities, "we've just got to be able to put those down," the coach added.

Three Tigers scored in double figures with J.T. Cristobal scoring 12 points with Brent Sexauer and Michael Daniels both netting 11. From there, the Tigers' scoring dropped with Luke Filipovich adding four, Tony McKenzie hitting three, Ricky Castillo adding two with Alex Rodriguez sinking one.

The Tigers shot just 33 percent from the field, which included a frigid 12 percent on three-point attempts and 67 percent from the free throw line.

In comparison, the Vikings shot 51 percent during the ball game, making two of its eight long balls while going 10 for 17 from the charity stripe.

The rebounds were fairly even, with Middleton bringing down 29 with Mountain Home finishing with 27. Ricky Castillo led the Mountain Home squad with seven.

Huskies 56, Tigers 47

The Tigers closed out their regular season schedule Friday night at Emmett and came up short to the hot-shooting Huskies in a 47-56 loss.

Mountain Home started out well and was up, 10-8, after a quarter. But the Huskies' shooting eye warmed in the second quarter when they drained four treys, including three by Tucker Hyde, who finished the quarter with 11 points. The Tigers then found themselves down by seven at halftime.

Tobin Gordon took over for Emmett in the third quarter and scored 13 of his game-high 15 points in the quarter as the Huskies stretched their lead to 14 after three.

A fourth quarter rally by Mountain Home fell well short as the Huskies prevailed in the regular season finale for the Tigers.

"They shot the ball really well," Kerfoot said regarding the Huskies' performance. "I was a little disappointed in us. I don't think we came out with much intensity. I thought we were pretty flat. We couldn't execute anything in the adjustments that we made in the last couple of days.

The coach remained disappointed in the Tigers' performance.

"It was like we just stood there and looked at each other and we weren't in the right spots," he added.

According to the coach, Emmett did kind of what he thought they would do that evening.

"They would hit some threes over here, and we'd have to be ready to get out there," he said. "You've got to be ready to play, and I don't think we were."

J.T. Cristobal led the Tigers in scoring with 14 points. Brent Sexauer and Michael Daniels both added seven points, Dion Salinas and Ricky Castillo had five apiece, Luke Filipovich dropped in four while Tyler Elliott finished with three and Alex Rodriguez sank two.

Mountain Home shot 32 percent from the field, including six of 21 of its three-pointers. The Tigers shot 69 percent from the free throw line. Meanwhile, the Huskies shot 41 percent from the field, including eight of its 19 long balls along with 62 percent of its free throws.

Emmett dominated the boards, 41-21. Ricky Castillo led Mountain Home with six rebounds.

The Tigers finished the regular season 3-13 in conference and 3-17 overall. They opened District III 4A Tourney play last Tuesday night at Bishop Kelly against the top-seeded Knights.

Coach Kerfoot was optimistic going into their district opener in Boise.

"I know a lot of years I wouldn't have wanted to go over and play B.K. in the first round, but it actually looks like a better shot this year than a whole bunch of other years," he said. "I don't think they're as dominant as they have been in the past. They're very young, and I think if a team went in with the right attitude and threw a real upset bid at them, their youth may show up. I think that's going to be something we can work on for maybe an ace in the hole going into it."

The district contest resumes on Saturday with losers playing losers and winners playing winners at the higher seeded teams.