Inexperience Costs Heritage Girls in Loss to Valley View

Kaila Gower drives the lane for a shot for Heritage High in Thursday night's girls basketball playoff game. Photos by Daniel Millhouse

By Daniel Millhouse

The Heritage High School girls basketball team clashed with Valley View of Moreno Valley in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 1A playoffs Thursday night. Unfortunately for the visiting Patriots, inexperience and the points in the paint they allowed on defense turned out to be their downfall in a 51-26 loss.

Heritage (16-9) began the game in the hole when a combination of turnovers and the Eagles’ game in the paint gave Valley View (22-3-1) an early lead of 20-5 after one quarter of play.

Led by 6-foot-1-inch sophomore Amani Moxley, the Eagles started the game with a 10-0 run in the first three minutes of the game before Patriots freshman Xaria Daniels hit a running jumper for two of her four points in the quarter to break the scoring run.

Heritage adjusted its defense to double down on Moxley, but this opened up Ryleigh Long and Dejah Wright for open shots from beyond the arc.

"There was a lot of size down there," Heritage coach Jay Gomez said of the inside game of Valley View. "We tried doubling from the weak side, doubling from the top. It’s hard to double when they have good shooters."

Behind captain Kaila Gower’s eight second-quarter points, the Patriots cut the Valley View lead to 10 points midway through the quarter. Unfortunately, the Eagles were able to piece together a 7-0 run to thwart Heritage before the half, ending the second quarter with a 32-15 lead.

 (In above photo, Karnea Taylor of Heritage drives to the basket).

Both teams clamped down on defense in the third quarter as neither team scored for nearly half the quarter. It wasn’t until 4:20 remained on the clock that Jalen Long of the Eagles sank both free throws to add to Valley View’s lead.

The Patriots held the Eagles to only eight points in the third for their best defensive performance of the night, but were held to only four points themselves, ending the quarter trailing by a score of 40-19.

Gower attempted to put the team on her shoulders scoring from both long range and in the paint for 7 points in the fourth quarter, but by then the Valley View lead was too insurmountable to overcome.

"She’s been our rock all year," Gomez said of Gower. "She’s averaging 20 points plus for us all season. I got her as a transfer as a senior (from Palm Springs High School). I wished she was only a junior so I can have her one more year."

Gomez continued on to say he believes that a college program would benefit from her talents.

Overall, Gower scored 17 of Heritage’s 26 points while Moxley led her team with 14 points along with Long, who scored nine.

Gomez is optimistic the Patriots will be stronger next season as their roster this season consisted of five freshmen and a sophomore.

"I have five freshmen on varsity, and two of them start in my back court," Gomez said of his young team. "They’re learning as they go. Considering everything and starting from scratch this season and rebuilding the whole program, we came out 16-9. That’s not a bad rebuild. We've just got to get these young girls to understand the game a little better and build their IQ up a little more, and we’ll work on that in the off-season."