Junior guard Victoria Pena was also named MVP after the ASC championship. Photo by Soujanya Bhat | Mercury Staff.
After scoring 20 points against McMurry University to bring an 80-64 win
for the Comets, women’s basketball guard Victoria Peña became the third Comet
to reach over 1000 career points.
Peña was named the American Southwest Conference East Player of the Year
for the second year in a row and was named to the College Sports Information
Directors of America Academic All-District Team.
“The all-academic is huge for me,” Peña said. “I came to UTD because it’s
obviously a really good academic school and, being a student athlete, academics
always comes first, so that’s really big for me. It’s a big accomplishment.”
This season, Peña
averaged 15.1 points, 5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, all while
maintaining a 3.91 GPA.
“It takes a lot of time management skills,” Peña said. “Obviously,
school is the most important thing, so a lot of late nights staying up studying
or not being able to go out with my friends who don’t have stuff to do like
school and athletics … balancing school and basketball is a lot.”
Earlier this year, Peña scored a career-high 35 points to bring a 78-57
win against Louisiana College. In the game, she made nine of 16 three-pointers.
Her three-point shooting percentage is 36.4, and she ranks second in the league
for three-pointers made.
Peña said she feels like she has
improved since her freshman year on the team.
“I think that (leadership) wasn’t one of my strengths coming in,” she
said. “I was kind of quiet (and) kept to myself, but I’m just proud of myself
for stepping into that role.”