Looking to improve from their opening night victory against New Haven, California boys basketball returned to their home court last Tuesday night for a match against the high-powered Moberly High School Spartans.
Behind the efficiency of their two leading men, Calen Kruger and Trevor Myers, the Pintos got past a slow start and charged past Moberly in a 69-53 win.
When the game tipped off, the Pintos soon found themselves stuck in neutral. They struggled with running their offense and turned the ball over at a faster rate than they did against New Haven. As Moberly continued to hit an early stride, they put the ball in the hands of their sharpshooter, Jaisten Payne. The Pintos didn't have an answer for Payne, who scorched them for 20 points in the first half.
With Payne heating up, California knew it was time to sound the alarm and called upon their dynamic duo of Kruger and Myers to match fire with fire. The Pintos played through their leading men and climbed back to take a three-point lead at 16-13 after one quarter of play.
In the second quarter, the Pintos started to pick up their intensity and took more chances on defense. If Payne broke free, the Pintos now looked to contain him. Although Payne continued to score and make plays for Moberly, the rest of the Spartans struggled to give Payne the help he needed, and the Pintos responded to the one-man assault with a team effort.
With the Pintos shutting down the rest of the Spartans on offense, the Pintos started to knock down shots and ended the first half with a 34-26 lead.
As the third quarter began, California sought to get back to playing their brand of basketball and increase their lead, and knew what they needed to create some breathing room: the fastbreak. Every time the Pintos forced Moberly into a missed shot or turnover, the Pintos looked to run the other way and complete some easy scores. The Spartans continued to run through Payne and relied on their three-point shooting to claw their way back. Unfortunately for Moberly, they only shot 18 percent from downtown in the game.
The Pintos quickly took advantages of Moberly's misses, once again led by Kruger and Myers, and outscored Moberly 23-13 in the third quarter. California led 57-39 going into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter, however, was not pretty for either team. Both sides struggled to grab control in the final eight minutes, committing fouls and turnovers. At one point, the Pintos were held scoreless for almost four minutes during the fourth quarter.
The Spartans tried to take advantage of California's mistakes and make plays but despite outscoring the Pintos 14-12 in the fourth quarter, time ran out for the Spartans and California emerged the winner by a 69-53 final score.
For the Pintos, Calen Kruger and Trevor Myers combined for 52 of California's 69 points - Kruger scored 28 and Myers scored 24. For Moberly, Jaisten Payne, who scored 20 points in the first half, finished the game with 37 points.
The Pintos shot 48 percent from the floor, 50 percent from three-point range, and outrebounded Moberly 48-25. Defensively, the Pintos held the Spartans to 38 percent shooting, 18 percent on three-pointers, and 47 percent from the free-throw line, and had 13 steals.
Pintos head coach Brad Conway said his team was slow to start the game because they didn't use their offense properly. Once the Pintos got back to playing their pace and using their bodies to make space, Conway said it paid dividends for them.
"Offensively, we weren't setting good screens, we weren't using the screens, and we were just going through the motions. They showed us a lot of quickness out there. That's something we can't really replicate in practice," Conway said. "We talked about making our passes shorter. Not making long passes, not making lazy passes. I just thought in the first quarter, we were stuck in cement and mud. And finally in the second quarter, we kind of got going."
Conway said he expected Payne was going to be a scoring and play-making threat to his Pintos. When California saw just how much of a threat Payne's individual game was on offense, they adjusted and wouldn't let Payne out of their sights. The Pintos would try to make someone else besides Payne beat them, Conway said.
"At halftime, we talked about making sure we knew where Payne was. We were going to stick to our zone just to keep him from dribble-driving into the paint and breaking us down," Conway said. " We were going to try to settle for him making the threes. We tried to get a hand in his face. I think he hit a couple threes in the second half. But that third quarter was really big. Both Kruger and Myers came on."
The win against Moberly provided several important lessons for the Pintos, Conway said. It taught them how to start a game, defend a big scorer, take advantage of making space on offense, and how to help their teammates without scoring.
California now sits at a record of 2-0, after holding both New Haven and Moberly to less than 40 percent shooting.
California is currently taking part in the Tri-County Conference Tournament in Boonville and will play either Boonville or Versailles on Thursday night.