Lady Tigers pick up wins over Columbia, Emmett

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers picked up a couple girls basketball conference wins last week.

Mountain Home 44, Columbia 29

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers took advantage of a huge and loud Blackout Night crowd to down Columbia, 44-29, last Tuesday in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Mountain Home trailed 6-5 with 3:13 left in the first quarter when they went on a 12-0 over the next five and a half minutes to go up, 17-6. The Lady Tigers went on to lead at half-time, 26-15.

After Columbia cut the lead to single digits, 26-17, early in the third quarter, Mountain Home increased their lead to 33-19 after three.

The closest Columbia would get the rest of the night was 35-23 as the Lady Tigers went on to a 44-29 win.

Mountain Home girls basketball coach Brent Keener was happy with the win.

"That was a good one, and what an incredible crowd. I've never seen anything like it. That was awesome to see. The girls played well. I thought early on we were a little nervous -- a little too amped up with that crowd, which is expected -- we've never played in front of anything like that --ever. But I thought we started to settle down a little bit and took care of the ball a little bit better, which is nice to see."

Jacci Cristobal and Mattie Bennett led the Lady Tigers in scoring with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Whitney Sandberg added eight points, Tracey Gordon had six, and Madi Karst and Morgan Vivier each scored two.

Mountain Home, shot 26 percent (13/50) from the field, hitting five of 12 (42 percent) on three-pointers. They hit 76 percent (13/17) from the free-throw line.

Columbia, obviously bothered by the huge, loud crowd, shot just 19 percent (11/58), hitting just two of 21 (10 percent) long balls, and a dismal 29 percent (5/19) from the foul line.

Mountain Home won the battle on the boards, 37-32, with Mattie Bennett leading the way with eight, Tracey Gordon, seven, and Madi Karst, six.

Mountain Home 72, Emmett 55

The Mountain Home Lady Tigers had one of their better shooting nights of the season Friday night, downing Emmett 72-55 at Emmett.

The Lady Tigers went on a 16-2 run in the last three and a half minutes of the first quarter to shoot out to a 23-12 lead, and never looked back.

Emmett cut the lead to four, 25-21, with 5:41 left in the first half, but a 14-3 run put the Lady Tigers up, 39-24 at the half.

Mountain Home's biggest lead of the game came in the third quarter, when they led, 54-27, with 2:22 left in the quarter. Mountain Home led 57-38 heading into the fourth and kept the Lady Huskies at bay the rest of the way, winning 72-55.

"It was a really nice win," said Coach Keener. "Offensively, that was great. That first quarter we scored 23, and we honestly could have scored 40 points -- we got so many good looks in that first quarter, it was unbelievable."

The Lady Tigers were just three points away from having their starting five all scoring in double figures. Mattie Bennett led the way with 22 points, Jacci Cristobal netted 19, Tracey Gordon 10, Whitney Sandberg nine, Madi Karst had seven (and 17 rebounds), Alexis Juarez three points and Sable Lohmeier two.

The wins improved Mountain Home to 5-7 in conference and 5-11 overall. The Lady Tigers hosted Skyview on Tuesday and will host Nampa on Thursday.

"It's a tough stretch next week," said Coach Keener after the Emmett game. "Skyview obviously is very good, and Thursday is Nampa, and they're playing really well also."

The Mountain Home News continues its series of taking a closer look at the Lady Tiger varsity basketball team.

Madi Karst

Madi Karst is a five-foot, nine-inch senior post and the daughter of Jennifer and Peter Karst.

Madi, who missed the first two months of the season due to a foot injury, said her hobbies include playing sports, hanging out with friends and having fun. Her main goal for the season is a team goal of "making it to state."

Her future plans are to "go to college and become very successful."