Tigers start off new year with two additional wins

The Mountain Home Tigers started the new year off in the right way, picking up wins over Gooding and Minico.

Mountain Home 75, Gooding 42

The Mountain Home Tigers opened the new year with a 75-42 non-conference win over the Gooding Senators last Tuesday night in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium in Mountain Home.

The Tigers broke away from an early 2-2 tie to shoot to a 22-6 first-quarter lead, and pumped in 27 points in the second quarter to up their lead to 49-24 at the half.

Mountain Home led 64-40 heading into the fourth quarter and held the Senators to just two free throws late in the game for a 75-42 win.

"The boys played great team basketball tonight," said Tigers head basketball coach Brion Bethel. "They passed the ball well and found the open guy all night. We have work to do on defense, but I was pleased with our effort and our shot selection."

All nine Tigers in uniform scored, four of them in double figures. Christen Riedel led the way with 15 points, Jarek Schetzle had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Marcus Egusquiza added 11 points and Tyler Park hit for 10. Jermaine Smith netted eight points, Jymon Garretson seven, Brion Bethel Jr. five, Garrett McKenzie three and Chris Wright,two.

Mountain Home shot 51 percent from the field, including six of 15 three-balls. They were 69 percent from the free-throw line.

Gooding ended the night shooting 36 percent from the field, hitting four of 14 long balls. They converted eight of 11 free throws for 73 percent.

Mountain Home 65, Minico 49

The Tigers avenged an earlier 66-61 loss at Minico by downing the Spartans 65-49 Saturday afternoon in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

Mountain Home shot out to an early 10-0 lead, only to have the Spartans battle back to with two, 12-10. The Tigers led 15-12 after a quarter.

The Tigers increased their lead back to 10 points on a couple occasions in the second quarter before Minico battled back to within five, 31-26, at the half.

Three-point baskets by Christen Riedel and Jymon Garretson -- he hit two in the quarter -- helped the Tigers extend their lead to 15 in the third quarter before Minico cut it to 12 at 45-33 heading into the fourth.

Mountain Home kept the Spartans at bay in the final eight minutes, never letting them get any closer than 12, and hit 12 of 16 free throws in the quarter to win, 65-49.

Coach Bethel was pleased with his Tigers' effort against Minico.

"We had a game plan -- we kind of got off track a couple times -- but we had a game plan as to what it would take to beat these guys, and I was really impressed with how our guys executed," the coach said.

Jarek Schetzle and Jymon Garretson led the Tigers with 21 and 18 points, respectively. Tyler Park added nine, Chris Wright and Jermaine Smith both scored five, Marcus Egusquiza and Christen Riedel each had three points and Garrett McKenzie added one.

The Tigers improved to 9-2 on the season, and begin conference play this week, hosting Caldwell Wednesday night, and travel to Skyview on Saturday. The Skyview game had been moved from Friday evening to Saturday evening.

Coach Bethel hopes to use the Minico win as momentum heading into their conference season.

"We needed this tough game. Minico is a great team, I'll take nothing from them, they're a great team, and for us that's a quality win. They're as tough as anyone we'll play within our conference.

"There's no weak team in our conference this year -- any team can win on any given night -- so for us, it's one of those we've got to bring our hard-hat lunch bucket every game."