Medrano reaches 1,000-point mark in Wildcats' victory

The Wildcats celebrated Ashlee Medrano passing the 1,000-point mark Wednesday. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

By Paige Mendez, Correspondent

The Paloma Valley girls basketball team won their game against Rancho Verde 51-19 Wednesday night, and there was much more significance than the final score indicated.

Although the Wildcats’ leading scorer, Ashlee Medrano, finished with 28 points in the game, it was her second shot of the night that was the biggest moment for her and her team. With it, she passed the 1,000-point mark in career scoring.

Medrano’s teammates and her head coach, Gabriel Flores, were anticipating the milestone and were grateful for a chance to celebrate with Medrano.

“She deserves all the praise and accolades and I wanted to make sure she got a chance to celebrate after that shot,” Flores said. “I didn’t want to mess with the flow of the game, but when the time was right, I needed to call a timeout to acknowledge her hard work.”

The 1,000th point came on a three-pointer on the wing that caught nothing but net and put her and the Wildcats up 5-0 in the first minute of the game. By the end of that first quarter, they had held the Mustangs to just six points compared to their 22.

The defense from Paloma was a key part of the win, holding Rancho Verde to just eight first-half points. A big part of that defense was junior Gina Misiaita getting seven steals in the game, bringing the team total to 17 steals.

Misiaita’s favorite moments of the game had nothing to do with her own statistics, however.

“Ashlee started hitting those threes and we were just cheering so loud,” she said. “Ashlee is such a hard worker and she believes in this team and trusts these girls and she’s a big deal.”

Medrano said without her teammates like Misiaita trusting her, she wouldn’t be putting up numbers like that.

“They support me in every shot that I take,” Medrano said. “They always encourage me to do my best no matter how little I feel.”

But there was nothing little about her 28 points on the night -- especially not the 12 of them that came from behind the arc.

Though the Mustangs out-rebounded the Wildcats, the shots from Paloma Valley were falling more often. Misiaita said she felt the energy from before the game started.

“I gave a pep talk on the way to the game that I hoped we would all play well since not all three levels [JV and sophomores] always get to play together,” she said. “So I told them we just all had to play to win. Then I prayed that we would do our best mentally and physically.”

The JV team set an exciting standard with an overtime win that ended in some clutch free throws.

“That win was huge, and that’s something you can’t necessarily coach, you just have to be there and live it,” said Flores. “And it was great to have the older girls there cheering on the JV team and I know that excitement carried through to their game.”

With the combination of pep talks, prayers and pregame excitement from the younger teammates, the Wildcats pulled out an impressive win before heading into the last four games of the season with a current 15-7 overall record.

Their next match-up will be a home game against Lakeside Friday at 6 p.m.

Ashlee Medrano's first points came on a layup in the opening minutes. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

 Medrano's second shot of the game came from the corner and hit the milestone. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

 Gina Misiaita goes up for two points in the Wildcats' win Wednesday. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

 Keigan Souza releases an outside jumper during the Wildcats' win. (Photo by Rick Rowell)