Paloma Valley Kicks Off Home Tournament with Victory

#24 Josh Madrid and #22 Josh Yuan double-team CMI ball handler

The Paloma Valley High School Winter Shootout tournament opened today, when the Wildcats took on the Rough Riders of the California Military Institute. The eight-team tournament features teams from as far as Boulder City, Nevada.

Paloma Valley won the game 71-43, its most points in a game this season.

Paloma Valley (4-8), coming off a solid victory against West Valley High School, entered the game with an air of confidence. In the Wildcats' pregame warm-ups, they were solid and their players came out with their game faces on.

The Rough Riders (1-3) came out looking ragged on offense. With missed layups and no mid-range shooting game to speak of, it would have been easy for the Rough Riders to fall apart right away, but their team hanged tough. Their defense blocked four shots in the paint in the first quarter alone.

The Wildcats on the other hand, played a fundamentally sound basketball. Crisp passes, good ball movement, and well-run plays kept the momentum of the game in their favor.

Despite the well-played quarter by the Wildcats, the Rough Riders were able to keep the score close at 12-10, after a quarter of play, thanks to 3 three pointers that the Rough Riders were able to sink.

The first few minutes of the second quarter were not much different, but something woke up the
Wildcats' offense. With the score at 15-13, with five minutes left to play, Paloma Valley went on a 23-3 run led by seniors Lejon Pettigrew and Izaiah Cameron (pictured right), to the end the half.

During the run, the Rough Riders tried to keep the score close by taking more shots from deep, but they were unable to connect.

At halftime, the score was 38-16.

"The defense is getting better every day," said Coach Michael Pfeiffer on Paloma Valley's ability to lockdown the Rough Riders' scoring during the Wildcats' scoring runs. "Coach Mike Young is new to our staff and he's our defensive coordinator. Our guys are young and growing into our defense, so we're seeing growth everyday."

After the break in play, the Rough Riders came out showing more energy than they had in the first half. Matching shot for shot with the Wildcats, the game didn't appear to be as much of a blowout that it appeared to be headed in the second quarter.

Not appearing to be too satisfied with their lead, with 2:48 left in the third quarter and up 46-26, the Wildcats once again went on a scoring streak. In spite of being held to 2-points at this point of the game, the Wildcats' second leading scorer, Manny Sandoval, led his team on a 12-1 scoring-run by making nice passes to help his teammates score, and grabbing offensive rebounds when they missed.

After three quarters of play, Paloma Valley led 58-27. At this point Coach Pfeiffer put in his bench players, to reward them with the playing time that they deserve after practicing hard, day after day.

The Rough Riders were able to go on a 6-0 run in the first three minutes of the forth quarter, but that streak was broken when senior Josh Yuan managed to get onto the free throw line, hitting both his free throws. California Military Institute was never able to gain momentum after that.


"We're a young team and so as a young team when we put our defense together on multiple trips, they can do great things for us," Pfeiffer said of his team's defensive abilities.

Cameron led the Wildcats in scoring with 14 points and was joined by two other teammates who also scored in double digits. Pettigrew scored 11 points and junior Chandler Sanders (pictured left) chipped in with 10 more. The Rough Riders' Angel Vega, led his team with 15 points scored, 9 of which came from three pointers.

There are two pools in the Paloma Valley High School Winter Shootout. Pool "A" is comprised of Paloma Valley, California Military Institute, Valley View High School (Moreno Valley), and San Jacinto High School. Pool "B" is comprised of Elsinore High School, West Valley High School (Hemet), Canyon Springs High School (Moreno Valley), and Boulder City High School (Nevada).

The schedule for the tournament is as follows:
Day One (Dec. 26)
Paloma Valley vs. California Military Institute 1:30 p.m.
San Jacinto vs. Valley View 3:00 p.m.
Boulder City vs. West Valley 4:30 p.m.
Canyon Springs vs. Elsinore 6:00 p.m.

Day Two (Dec. 27)
California Military Institute vs. San Jacinto 1:30 p.m.
Elsinore vs. Boulder City 3:00 p.m.
Paloma Valley vs. Valley View 4:30 p.m.
West Valley vs. Canyon Springs 6:00 p.m.

Day Three (Dec. 29)
Valley View vs. California Military Institute 1:30 p.m.
Paloma Valley vs. San Jacinto 3:00 p.m.
Boulder City vs. Canyon Springs 4:30 p.m.
Elsinore vs. West Valley 6:00 p.m.

Day Four (Dec. 30)
To be determined based on the first three days of tournament play.

#32 Austin Hankins saves the ball from going out-of-bounds by throwing it off CMI's #20

#10 Manny Sandoval lays the ball up in the 3rd quarter