WARDSVILLE, Mo. - The California Pintos girls basketball team (12-8) lost a close matchup Feb. 19 to the Blair Oaks Falcons (10-10), falling 44-38.
It was a low scoring affair early on, as in the first quarter the Pintos led 5-4 with less than 5:00 on the clock. Blair Oaks took a 6-5 lead with around 2:20 left in the quarter. The Pintos retook the lead at 8-6 after a three-pointer by Bailey Lage with just more than 2:00 left in the quarter, but the Falcons retook the lead again at 9-8 with around 1:40 left in the quarter. At the end of the opening period, the Pintos still trailed 9-8.
The Pintos retook the lead in the middle part of the second quarter, after a three-pointer by Trishelle Porter made it a 13-11 game with around 5:20 left before halftime. Later, with the Pintos up 14-13, a three-pointer by Rylee Hees made it 17-13 with just more than 2:00 left in the half. Blair Oaks tied the game at 19 before taking a 22-19 lead with less than 1:00 to go before the halftime break.
With around 5:20 left in the third quarter it was still a three point game, with Blair Oaks leading 24-21. The Falcons soon began to pull away, going on a 5-0 run to make it 29-21 late in the quarter. The Pintos cut the lead down to four points as they made it 29-25 heading into the final quarter.
The Pintos worked to cut the Falcons' lead down even further to two points after two free throws by Bailey Lage made it a 31-29 game with just less than 6:00 left in the game. The Falcons widened the gap yet again, making it a 36-31 game with just more than 3:00 left on the clock. The Pintos were able to stay in striking distance as the minutes waned, but were unable to tie the game; Blair Oaks led by six points at 42-36 with 32 seconds left before the final buzzer. In the final moments of the matchup, the Pintos kept it close, but time ran out and Blair Oaks held on for the win.
Turnovers were an issue for the Pintos on the night, as they lost the ball 16 times throughout the game. Head coach Bobby Sangster said turnovers have been a problem for the team for the whole season; in this game, the turnovers were more a result of what the Pintos were doing rather than what Blair Oaks was doing on defense, Sangster said.
"When we play poorly, it is because of turnovers," Sangster said. "It is not what Blair Oaks was doing, it was what we were doing and we have to take accountability for that. We've got to be stronger with the basketball and make good basketball plays."
Sangster said he thought the team fought extremely hard in the loss.
"I thought we came out and tried to execute as best as we could and it just did not fall our way tonight," Sangster said.
Sangster said he hoped that this game can help get the rust off and let the team shift focus to its upcoming matchups.
"Hopefully, this is one of those five games that isn't your best," Sangster said. "Hopefully, this is an opportunity to get the rust off. We have faced a lot of adversity in this last week, with four snow days out of five. It is just hard; Blair Oaks is always a tough place to play and it is a tough thing to do against a conference opponent, and if you throw all this adversity in it is just part of it. So we have to dust ourselves off, because we can't let one loss turn into two and we turn right back around and play another great conference opponent at our place tomorrow night. We can't let this have any lingering effects on us."
Tristan Porter led the team with 11 points, followed by Bailey Lage with eight points, KaLynn Irey with seven points, and Trishelle Porter and Rylee Hees each with four points.
The Pintos' next game is at 7 p.m. on March 1 at Southern Boone in the first round of the Class 4 District 8 Tournament.