After defeating Iberia in the first home game on Dec. 5, California Pintos basketball went back on the road to take on the Hermann Bearcats.
The Bearcats were led by sharp-shooting guard Easton Stiers and their towering forwards Coulter Schwartze and Daeden Hopkins.
Defensively, the Pintos went with a man-to-man defense while the Bearcats chose to go with a 2-3 zone defense to take away the lane.
Hopkins had five points, three rebounds and a block in the first quarter. The Pintos only scored five points in the first quarter and trailed 11-5 with forward Landen Dunham scoring four of the points.
The second quarter saw both teams continue to struggle on offense, but Hermann's zone defense took control of the contest. Hermann took a 19-11 lead into halftime.
Going into the second half, California looked to find a weak point in Hermann's defense to claw back into the game. Although the Pintos scored 13 points in the third quarter including three three-pointers, the Bearcats refused to yield. Stiers hit three three-pointers in the quarter to help give Hermann a ten-point lead.
In the fourth quarter, Hermann's zone defense eliminated California's comeback in the game. The Pintos scored four points in the fourth quarter while the Bearcats scored nine. When the final buzzer sounded, the Bearcats emerged victorious 43-28.
Guard Chase Trimble led California with eight points, two assists and two steals off the bench. Dunham had six points, six rebounds and a block. Forward Hayden Kilmer had six points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal.
Stiers led Hermann with 15 points (all on three pointers), three assists, two steals and two rebounds. Guard Nolan Brune had 11 points and five rebounds. Hopkins had nine points, ten rebounds and five blocks.
Pintos head coach Brad Conway gave credit to Hermann's zone defense for making things difficult for the California offense. Conway and his staff took the Pintos through multiple shooting drills in practice to increase the team's accuracy. However, California's shooting woes returned on Friday night.
"I thought at times we did a pretty good job of executing our stuff. We just couldn't put the ball in the hole. Shots that we shoot every single day in practice just weren't falling for us," Conway said. " Then dealing with those two bigs in the middle, we knew that was going to be a challenge. They hit some threes and it's kind of like you pick your poison with them. You take away their inside, you've got to deal with their outside."
Conway acknowledged as long as his team keeps taking easy shots such as layups and free throws, they will eventually fall into the basket.
"I told the guys that we've got to put this one behind us and we've got to be thinking about Monday. We're going to have off-nights on our shooting and unfortunately for us, we didn't get anything in transition. In the first half, I think we left about eight points on the floor and in the second half it was about eight or ten," Conway said. "We've just got to keep taking our shots that we were missing tonight because we know we can hit them."
They will host conference rival Southern Boone on Friday night.
(Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
Gavin Porter had three points, three rebounds and two steals against the Hermann Wildcat
(Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
Junior guard Brooks Volkart (left) defends Hermann guard John Hiatt Jr. on Friday night.
(Democrat photo/Evan Holmes)
Pintos head coach Brad Conway addresses his team before the fourth quarter against the Hermann Wildcats.