Wildcats advance in girls basketball playoffs, 47-42

Jada Tiggett scored 16 points, Ashlee Medrano scored 11, and the Paloma Valley High girls basketball team used aggressive defense to defeat Eisenhower 47-42 Saturday in the first round of the CIF Division 1 playoffs in Rialto.

The Wildcats survived 23 turnovers with a solid second half to earn a second-round home game on Wednesday against Camarillo. They used a 7-0 run late in the game to take a 41-34 lead and held on against a team that defeated the Wildcats in last year’s Division 2A finals.

“It felt good,” coach Matt Dale said about avenging last year’s loss. “It’s not often you get a chance like that. We didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball; that’s not a winning formula. But I thought we defended really well. That was our plan – build the game around our defense, that it was OK to win ugly.

“Jada made some big play offensively, but it was a collective effort. Our starters played some big minutes in the second half. They really battled through the fatigue.”