WARDSVILLE - Scoring in the 40s has been plenty for the California Pintos in three of their last four wins.
That pace wasn't going to work for the Blair Oaks Falcons, who sped up the Pintos in the second half Saturday to run away with a 71-40 victory in Tri-County Conference play.
"California did a good job early of being very patient offensively, running their offense and getting good looks," Blair Oaks coach Ryan Fick said after the Falcons won their third straight game while ending the Pintos' winning streak at four.
It was also Blair Oaks' sixth straight win against California.
It only took two and a half minutes for an 11-point halftime lead to grow to 19, thanks in part to four California turnovers.
"Once we were able to speed them up into the second quarter and at the beginning of the second half when we guarded full court, I thought that was the difference," Fick said.
After the ball went out of bounds off California in the backcourt, Luke Northweather caught an in-bounds pass and softly dropped it into the basket for a 41-25 lead about a minute into the second half.
Steals for Jake Closser and Quinn Kusgen each turned into a free throw and Northweather later scored over a double team on an in-bounds play to cap an 11-3 run.
A 34-23 lead turned into a 45-26 gap.
"We'll play up-tempo but it's got to be under control," California coach Brad Conway said. "You've just got to make good decisions with the basketball and at times we don't do that."
Northweather scored 13 of his game-high 25 points in the third quarter. He also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
"I thought we did a good job of establishing our inside game again," Fick said.
Blair Oaks led 55-34 with a quarter remaining and had its largest lead after Zach Henry made a 3-pointer from the wing to make it 71-38 with 2:10 remaining.
That was just Blair Oaks' third make from beyond the arc in the second half after shooting 8-of-19 from 3-point range in the first 16 minutes.
The first six points of the game for the Falcons came on Kusgen's first two 3-point attempts. Kusgen made five of his first six 3-pointers for 15 of his 24 points.
"He was shooting the ball really well and when a shooter feels that little bit of heat check, you know, he shot the ball really well," Fick said.
Closser made 3-of-4 from deep to add 12 points for Blair Oaks (18-4, 5-0 Tri-County).
"When Luke went to the bench for awhile I thought our guards stepped up and knocked some shots down from from the perimeter," Fick said.
Trevor Myers was aggressive in attacking inside for the Pintos, scoring five of his 12 points at the free-throw line.
Calen Kruger added nine points and Will Pickering finished with eight points and five rebounds for California (8-14, 2-4 Tri-County).
"I thought we executed pretty well, got some really good looks, scored on a few of them," Conway said.
Blair Oaks, ranked No. 8 in Class 4 by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association, will wrap up the regular season this week by hosting Versailles on Tuesday and playing Thursday at Eldon.
California closes out the regular season Thursday by hosting Boonville.
Blair Oaks won Saturday's JV game 55-27. Brayden Lehmen scored 11 points and Henry added 10 to lead Blair Oaks.
Gavin Porter paced California with 14 points.