Robinson's First Half Explosion Leads Women's Hoops To 2nd Straight Triumph

They call her "Nay-Nay," but it was a lot of yay-yays for Bryannae Robinson in the first half of the Pasadena City College women's basketball team game v. LA Trade-Tech on Friday night. Robinson put on a show, scoring 21 of her season-high 31 points in the second quarter to lead the Lancers to an 89-81, South Coast Conference North Division victory at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.

The Lancers went back over the .500 mark at 13-12 and improved to 2-3 in conference play. PCC was currently #20 in the SoCal RPI ratings which will help determine the 24 playoff spots in this year's SoCal Regional Playoff field. Pasadena avenged a 68-62 loss at LATT on Jan. 18. 

Robinson was a perfect 9-for-9 from the field and 3-for-3 at the free throw line in the monster second period. It started with 8:48 to go in the half with a steal and basket that gave PCC a 23-17 lead. 

At 7:41, she took a feed from Tena Ikidi under the basket to lay in for a 25-20 advantage. Fifteen seconds later, Naomi Turner made a mid-court steal and led Robinson for a fast-break basket (27-20). At 6:18, Turner grabbed a LATT turnover and again found Robinson all alone for a bucket (29-20).

At 5:01, Sheridan Orange hit Robinson who layed it in at 33-25. At 4:17, Robinson grabbed a defensive rebound off a block by Tatiana Ayala, got the ball upcourt to Haylie Sagarra who fed Robinson for another easy layup. 

On the next possession, Turner grabbed a defensive rebound and her bomb lead pass to Robinson resulted in yet another basket and a 37-25 lead. With 2:38 to go in the quarter, Robinson made another steal and raced in for the basket that made it 41-30. At 1:58, she followed up a miss by Turner and made a basket-and-one (44-30). After Robinson blocked a shot, she would draw a foul and hit two more free throws with a minute left. 

In a whirlwind span of less than eight minutes, the freshman forward from Arizona had scored 21 points, or three more than in any game her entire season. She finished making 13 of 20 shots from the floor, 5-for-5 at the line, totaled nine rebounds and three steals. 

In the second half, Ikidi, the team's post leader and sophomore transfer center, took her turn to rev up things. She scored 22 points and grabbed 12 boards over the final two quarters to finish with her season best of 28 points to go with 16 rebounds.

"We've had players go on streaks in the past, but usually it involves hitting 3s. It was remarkable but all due to Bryannae's hustle and not rushing her drives to the basket," said PCC head coach Joe Peron. "We had two kids put up nearly 60 points between them and all inside or near the paint. In a day and age of long-range shooting, it was refreshing to see us play more up tempo and moving the ball as fast as possible to find an open player upcourt."

Maiya Villanueva started to return to her scoring form with 14 points, making 4-for-6 from 3-point range plus five assists. 

Orange added four points, six assists and two steals while Ayala contributed six points. 

Amit Lustagarten led Trade Tech with 24 points while Pamela Gonzalez, who played at PCC in the 2019-2020 season, added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Beavers (12-13, 1-4 in the SCC North).