Paloma Valley Girls Beat Perris for First Time in 10 Years

Coach Romeo Galbreath talks to his players during a timeout in Thursday night's game.

By Sierra Trujillo

For the first time in more than 10 years, the Paloma Valley High School girls basketball team defeated the Panthers of Perris High School Thursday night, 52-43.

Playing on the road, the Wildcats, who hadn’t won against Perris in over 20 matchups, scored a huge victory.

“We haven’t beat them in a long time, so I’m pretty excited,” said head coach Romeo Galbreath. “We struggled a little bit early just getting calm and running our game, but I’m excited we got the win.”

The Wildcats came out strong in the first half and scored 22 points, with junior Angelica Kilpatrick leading the team with 10 points in the half. However, they ended the second period behind by three points.

“We were a little bit excited,” said Galbreath. “We needed to calm down and play our game. [Perris] got us out of our game. We came out and got a quick lead and kept it.”

The Wildcats did in fact take a quick lead over the Panthers, outscoring them 15-6 in the third quarter. Senior Alanna Staiger led the Wildcats in the period with six points.

“We have a couple seniors that are doing really good so I’m excited about where we’re at,” said Galbreath. “We’re scoring a lot better.”

In the final period, the Wildcats kept up the energy they had showed all game and continued to outscore the Panthers. Perris was not going down without a fight, but with the help of five more points from Kilpatrick, the Wildcats were able to shut the door on a possible Panthers comeback and secure the win.

“Three years ago we were losing by 40 [points] every game,” said Galbreath. “We’re at the point where we’re winning now… it’s just hoping we get in situations where [we] get an opportunity to get the lead.”

Kilpatrick ended the game with 15 points, while senior Regina Sheffield contributed to the outcome with nine points. Galbreath said the team depends on both girls to score, in order to give the Wildcats opportunities to win games.

Kilpatrick said it felt good to get the win against Perris, but that the Wildcats need to play a cleaner game in the future.

“Communication and teamwork,” said Kilpatrick, on what it takes for the team to win games. “We just need to keep a positive mind all game.”

With Thursday’s win, the Wildcats improved their record to 13-6. They will look to continue this success when they host the Patriots of Heritage High School in a league game on Tuesday.

“If we trust each other, we can play with anybody in our league and in our division,” said Galbreath. “I think that we can run with anybody if we just trust each other and run as hard as we can.”