Villanueva Reaches Women's Basketball 500-Point Club In ECC Victory

Hitting appropriately a 3-point basket early on Wednesday night, point guard Maiya Villanueva became the 37th player in Pasadena City College women's basketball history to reach at least 500 points in her career in the Lancers' 69-44 win at El Camino College.

Villanueva, a 5-foot-3 sophomore from Buckeye, Arizona, scored 19 points in helping the Lancers win their third straight game to improve to 11-8 overall. It took her 38 games (20 last season) to reach now 516 points in her PCC career.

Most of her points have come on 3-point shots, now at 118 in her two seasons. She has been remarkably consistent as she averages 13.6 points a game, the same she performed last year as a freshman. She is seventh in the state this season in 3s with 55. 

Transfer center Tena Ikidi continues to be one of the state's top post players as she scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Ikidi made 11 of her 13 field goal attempts (84.6 percent). Ikidi leads the state in total rebounds (298) and third in average per game at 15.7 boards. Her 44 blocked shots are third in the state. 

PCC opened an early 11-3 lead, but El Camino fought back to take a 17-16 advantage after the first quarter. Late in the second quarter, PCC led just 23-21, but the Lancers would pull away over the final three minutes of the first half through the third quarter. In that 13-minute stretch, Pasadena outscored ECC, 24-7. 

Backup center Tatiana Ayala added six points and six rebounds while starting guard Sheridan Orange contributed six points.

The unranked Lancers travel to face state #18-ranked Long Beach City College on Friday, Jan. 13 at 5 p.m. PCC is 20th in the SoCal region RPI that helps determine postseason playoff seeds.