Offensive rebounds are a funny thing. You ideally like to grab quite a few, but get too many and it's likely you've got problems with your shooting touch.
The California Pintos got all the offensive boards they would need - plus a few more for good measure - while rolling to a 91-72 win against the Eldon Mustangs on Saturday afternoon.
The Pintos racked up 25 of their 43 rebounds on the offensive end during the game in the Capital City Shootout at Fleming Fieldhouse, giving them plenty of second (and third and fourth) chances while squeezing off 82 shots.
"It's nice, but sometimes I would like to just stick the ball in the hole earlier," California coach Ron Lebel said with a laugh. "I think the offensive board stat is a little misleading, because on like two possessions we got three or four nice looks at it but had to keep shooting. Preferably, I'd like to stick the first one in the hole and call it good.
"But that shows they're competing. We shoot it and then try to go get it."
The Pintos got 13 of those offensive rebounds in the third quarter alone, which is when they put up a whopping 32 shots, making 11.
"We struggle shooting the ball at times," Lebel said. "Tonight, we had a few times where we had five or six looks at it and some of them didn't even hit the rim."
The game featured a huge turnaround, as California finished strong after Eldon got off to a quick start.
The Mustangs scored the game's first seven points, and their lead was still that margin when Logan Hall made a layup to make it 19-12 in favor of Eldon with 28 seconds left in the first quarter.
But a shot in the paint by California's Isaac Ash just 12 seconds later made it 19-14 after the initial period and jump-started a 14-0 run that gave the Pintos the lead for good.
California forced three straight Eldon turnovers to start the second quarter, leading to a 3-pointer by Jordan Bondurant and back-to-back layups by Bondurant and Jordan Geiser.
"Right now, we just don't have a whole lot of depth, and the way California plays defense, that's a problem," Eldon coach Brandon Kliethermes said. "Hats off to their kids and their coaches, they got after it, they guarded us. Fatigue set in a little bit on us in that second quarter and they made a big, big run on us."
California forced 26 Eldon turnovers in the game, with 19 of them coming in the second and third quarters combined.
"I don't know that it's physical fatigue as much as it is mental, when somebody keeps coming at you, coming at you, coming at you," Kliethermes said. "Then you have a couple mental breakdowns, they capitalize and then it's like, 'Oh no,' and it snowballs on you."
The Pintos hit 13-of-20 shots while putting together a 32-point second quarter, racing out to a 46-32 lead at halftime. They followed that up with a 28-point third period, cooling off quite a bit by making just 11-of-32 shots, but the offensive rebounding still helped them move the lead to 74-54 going to the final quarter.
Eldon had 11 turnovers in the third quarter alone.
"That's what we were trying to do," Lebel said. "We're still a little limited on what we can do offensively, so we try to create a few turnovers and turn them into a bit of offense.
"We've been kind of good at it so far, it's something we work on every day. We preach that when we're creating turnovers, we're attacking the rim. We're not settling for jump shots or 3-pointers."
Trystan Hees had a monster game for the Pintos, racking up 23 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, but he was far from the lone contributor for California (2-5). Four other Pintos were in double figures - Ash and Geiser had 18 apiece, Bondurant added 11 and Nathan Pickering chipped in with 10 - while Trey Porter was close behind with nine.
Kliethermes said it was tough for Eldon (0-9) to guard that many options.
"Give credit to their 'role players,' I thought they played extremely well - they hit some big shots, they played with a lot of energy and they guarded hard," Kliethermes said. "They're so deep and (Lebel) does a good job mixing lineups and they can get after you defensively while still having offensive production."
California's output topped the Shootout record for points in a game, beating the 78 put up by Belle in the 2013 event.
Lebel said he expects that kind of production all season.
"We're going to be a balanced unit all year long," he said. "One night, someone might have a good night and then the next night, his buddy will."
Hall pumped in a game-high 29 points to pace Eldon, including a 10-of-10 effort from the free-throw line. Clayton Moore had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, Jordan Metz added 12 points and Chase Fitzpatrick had 10. The Mustangs' starters accounted for all 72 of the team's points.