Women's Cager Tena Ikidi Makes The Most Of PCC Sisterhood of Champions Tourney

Sophomore transfer forward Tena Ikidi is just what the doctor ordered in the post for the Pasadena City College women's basketball team. At 6-foot-3, the Nigerian took over the paint often as the Lancers finished 2-1 at the PCC Sisterhood of Champions Tournament played Nov. 10-12 at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.

Ikidi made the All-SoC Tournament team by totaling 55 points, grabbing 48 rebounds, with six blocks and four steals. She has been a large part of PCC's 3-2 start to the 2022-23 season.

In a 62-53 finale win over MiraCosta on Saturday, Ikidi helped PCC open a 20-9 first-quarter lead with seven points and seven boards. When the Spartans rallied to cut it to 35-33, Ikidi placed the team on her back as she scored 19 of the Lancers' 29 second-half points and grabbed 10 boards. She finished with 26 points and 17 rebounds while providing stellar defense. No other Lancer reached double figures in scoring.

When the Spartans had cut the lead to two points, Ikidi made two put-backs (one a basket-and-one free throw) and hit a jumper to cap an 11-2 Lancers run that gave the team some breathing room. MiraCosta closed the gap to five, 46-41, by the end of the period. Then in the fourth quarter, Ikidi nailed three straight buckets to build the advantage to 52-43. Again the Spartans cut it to five at 54-49, but Ikidi responded with back-to-back layups in the final few minutes to seal the victory.

Bryannae Robinson added eight points and five rebounds while Maiya Villanueva scored seven points and dished out five assists.

"Tena is the type of player who can be relentless especially on the offensive boards," said PCC head coach Joe Peron. "She works really hard and it shows because she will be exhausted by game's end. We've leaned on her in the early part of the season, but we have some players just not playing up to our standards yet. I'm a bit disappointed in our outside shooting, so when that starts to click, we will be a more complete squad offensively. I think our defense has been good for the most part."

Ikidi is seventh in the state in rebounding with a 13.2 average and she leads the Lancers in scoring at 16.2 per contest. 

On Friday, the Lancers were in catch-up mode the entire 40 minutes in their 72-54 loss to Irvine Valley, the only team to go 3-0 at the 6-team tourney. Irvine Valley took a 15-6 first-quarter lead, then upped it to 29-12 during the second period. The Lasers led by as much as 20 points at 51-31 and controlled nearly every aspect of the contest.

For IVC, Emily Freeman drained four 3s as part of her 18 points and the Lasers outscored PCC from beyond the 3-point line, 27-3. Ikidi played well in the defeat with 21 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks while Sheridan Orange had a strong game in reserve by scoring 14 points (8-for-11 at the free throw line, 3-for-3 from the field) and adding two steals. 

In the team's opening round 70-29 win over Santa Monica on Thursday, the Lancers struggled in the first half and at one point were tied 19-19 with 4:40 left in the second quarter. 

From that point on, PCC took over the contest and it started with free throw shooting. PCC made 7-of-8 from the line and took a 31-23 lead going into halftime. 

In the second half, the Lancers defense limited the Corsairs to just three baskets and outscored them, 39-6. 

Naomi Turner scored a game-high 15 points with eight rebounds and three steals while Keila Chavez came off the bench to deliver 14 points, including four 3-pointers.

PCC SISTERHOOD OF CHAMPIONS TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 10-12
at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium