Preview: Paloma Valley Wildcats vs. Heritage Patriots
Paloma Valley and Heritage are an even 5-5 against one another since February of 2016, but not for long. The Paloma Valley Wildcats will be playing in front of their home fans against the Heritage Patriots at 5:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Each of these teams will be battling to keep a six-game winning streak alive.
Paloma Valley has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won five games by 22 points or more this season. They blew past Tahquitz 66-39 at home. 66 seems to be a good number for Paloma Valley as the squad scooped up a win with the same number of points in their previous game.
Ashlee Medrano continued her habit of posting crazy stat lines, scoring 30 points along with 6 assists. That makes it seven consecutive games in which she has scored at least 25% of Paloma Valley's points. Gina Misiaita was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with 5 steals.
Heritage has made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won three games by 36 points or more this season. They took their match at home on Thursday with ease, bagging a 69-27 win over La Quinta. Given Heritage's advantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 56th, while La Quinta is ranked 280th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Sierra Maxwell was her usual excellent self, dropping a double-double on 28 points and 12 steals. The game was her sixth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Reg'inae Hardin, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and 15 rebounds.
Paloma Valley's victory bumped their record up to 6-1. As for Heritage, they pushed their record up to 6-0 with that victory, which was their third straight at home.
This contest is shaping up to be a blowout: Paloma Valley hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having only averaged 56.3 points per game. However, it's not like Heritage struggles in that department as they've been averaging only 66.2 per game. The only thing between Paloma Valley and another offensive beatdown is Heritage. Will they be able to keep them contained? Come back here after the game to get analysis of the match and other basketball content.
Paloma Valley was able to grind out a solid victory over Heritage when the teams last played back in December of 2022, winning 54-46. Will Paloma Valley repeat their success, or does Heritage have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
