Growing Pains For Young Women's Cagers

The Pasadena City College women's basketball team lost its fifth straight game on Tuesday night, losing an up-tempo battle v. Citrus, 92-63, at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium.

Save for reshirt sophomore starting guard Sheridan Orange, the Lancers (1-5 overall) have played with virtually an all freshmen rotation thus far this season.

"We're young with whole new lineup, and I think the players are trying to not only learn how to play with each other but adjust to playing college basketball in general," said PCC head coach Joe Peron. "We've gone up against some really good teams and Citrus is a high-octane squad with a lot of offense. We need to work on our conditioning too as I think we sort of lose steam later in games. We played well in the first half and things kind of fell apart for us by the end of the third quarter."

Lyndsey Valverde scored a team-high 19 points with three steals and three assists while Orange had a double-double on 12 points and 10 rebounds. Monica Menzies and Abigail Aguilar (5-for-6 shooting) each scored 10 points. 

For Citrus (5-1), returning All-State guard Jolleen Olia was a force with 25 points, six assists and five steals and sharp shooter Leilani Argueta added 24 points, including seven 3-point bombs. 

At the Moorpark We Are MC Tournament Nov. 7-9, PCC lost to Riverside City, 70-56, despite 18 poinst and eight boards by Valverde and 16 points from Menzies. Against Canyons, Menzies hit a jumper that tied it at 55-55 with 1:49 remaining, but Alexas Ruelas hit a trey for the Cougars game-winning basket, 58-55. Valverde netted 21 points (seven rebounds, four assists and four steals) and Menzies scored 20.

In a 77-66, tourney-ending defeat v. Solano, Valverde and Menzies each scored 20 while Kimberly Dominguez grabbed 11 rebounds (and scored three points). Paris Ngeam added eight points and eight rebounds and Orange tallied nine points. 

Orange was selected to the All-PCC Sisterhood of Champions Tournament team as PCC finished 1-1 in the season-opening event. 

The Lancers next play at the Santa Ana Tournament on Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 5-7.