ASHLAND - The California Pintos like to play fast, but the Hermann Bearcats like to play slow.
Fortunately for California, its speed won out as the Pintos cruised to a 59-43 win Tuesday night in the first round of the Class 3 District 8 Tournament.
Hermann tried to slow down California with timeouts in the first quarter, but the Pintos raced out to a 24-3 lead in the first 6 minutes of the game. By halftime, California led 43-17.
"We knew we had to jump on them early," California senior Landon Mouse said. "We've kind of had some rough games where we start off slow, so that was kind of our goal to come out hot and get them down early and make it our pace of the game."
The Bearcats couldn't hit shots - going 6-of-23 from the field in the first half - against California's 2-3 zone and the Pintos couldn't miss as they shot 14-of-23 from the field in the first half.
"We certainly wanted them to prove that they could make some," California coach Matt Moulder said. "They started making some there when they made their little runs. We came out of it and went to some man late to contest shooters better."
California used ball movement to create open looks underneath and outside, and raced down the floor for transition layups when the opportunity was available.
Josh Woodruff and Mouse hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 12-0. After a missed 3 for Hermann, Mouse knocked down a jumper to cap off the 14-0 run in the first 4 minutes of the game.
"We stress all the time that we want to work our offense inside-out," Moulder said. "... I thought we executed our offense in the first half."
Hermann finally got on the board with a Trey McKague jumper. More than one-third of Hermann's makes came from McKague, who shot 6-of-12 from the field and 4-of-5 from the line to lead the Bearcats with 16 points.
The rest of the team combined to shoot 11-of-35 from the field and 0-of-1 at the line.
California made 56.4 percent (22-of-39) of its shots, including 11-of-14 from Mouse, who scored a game-high 28 points and finished with nine rebounds.
Jacob Wolken had a game-high 11 boards along with 15 points. California outrebounded Hermann 33-19.
"I thought Jacob Wolken, especially, did a great job on the boards," Moulder said. "That's huge for us. We stress all the time, we want to win those rebound battles."
The Pintos' second bucket of the game came off a Wolken offensive rebound.
In the second quarter, Wolken grabbed his own rebound, made the bucket and drew the foul. The free throw was off the mark, but California led 36-17 with 4:34 remaining in the first half.
A pair of Mouse free throws made it 40-17 with 1:20 left before Hermann tried to hold on for the final shot of the half.
The Bearcats missed a 3, but Mouse got the rebound and sped down the floor in time to attempt his own 3, drawing a foul and making all three free throws to put California up 43-17 at the half.
The second half became more Hermann's speed, as the Pintos only scored eight points in each of the final two quarters.
"We kind of, I guess, didn't come out focused," Mouse said. "... That wasn't what we wanted but luckily we moved on and now we get a shot at (Father) Tolton and see what happens."
California shot 50 percent (8-of-16) in the second half, but nine of its 14 turnovers occurred in the second half.
"We weren't fundamentally sound like we have been recently," Moulder said. "We got a little comfortable and you can't afford to do that in playoff basketball."
Matthew Heidger drained two 3-pointers in the first minute of the second half to cause California to call a timeout.
Mouse scored on California's first possession following the timeout, but the Pintos didn't score in the next 1:30.
California then went nearly 3 minutes before its next bucket.
"When you're playing really good people in playoff time you can't afford those kind of lapses," Moulder said. "When we come out on Thursday we're certainly going to have to put together 32 focused minutes of basketball."
A Mat Hug 3 and a McKague inside bucket cut it to 49-32 with 3:24 left in the third quarter.
A Jaylin Freeman layup with 2:18 left was the final points of the third quarter. Freeman finished with 10 points.
Hermann got as close as 15 in the fourth quarter, but it only scored four points in the final 3 minutes of the game to keep California comfortably in front.
California (17-7) advances to face Father Tolton, the No. 1 ranked team in Class 3, at 6 p.m. Thursday in the semifinals. The Trailblazers beat North Callaway 79-26 in the first round.
"We just have to have a good practice (today), work our game and our goal is to just stay in it until the fourth quarter and see what happens," Mouse said.