Picchi Is as Talented as Well-Known Peers

It was only a summer league girls’ basketball game, but it stands out in Andrea Picchi’s mind because Magnolia doesn’t play elite competition too often.

That day against Fountain Valley, playing on the same court as Jennifer Ludwicki and Nicole Strange, Picchi made five three-point baskets and scored 27 points.

“I wasn’t necessarily taking it to them,” Picchi said, “but I adjusted to the way they were playing me and I still scored. I have the utmost respect for [Ludwicki and Strange], and I’m pretty proud of that.”

She showed she belonged and that a mention in the same sentence as the county’s best players isn’t necessarily a misquote. Picchi (pronounced pee-kee) is one of Orange County’s best-kept secrets.

Former Woodbridge coach Eric Bangs, now an assistant at Irvine Valley College, saw the 5-foot-11 redhead in the fall: “I introduced myself to [Magnolia Coach Doug Romeo] and he said he thought she was the best forward in the North County, and I thought that it was pretty amazing that we hadn’t heard of her. She appeared to have a lot of game. We hadn’t seen anyone other than Brea from up that way for a couple of years. But I guess he was right.”

There is North County basketball outside Brea Olinda, and Picchi embodies the best of it.

She spent the December holiday at various tournaments, watching some of the county’s best players, picking up ideas on how to improve her game. That might be her trademark, even more so than that little fake turnaround jumper duck-under move that has helped her average 22.2 points and go to the foul line 149 times this season, where she’s a 79.2% shooter.

Ask who her influences are and she reels off an Orange County basketball all-star team: former Savanna star Sara Works, a senior when Picchi was a freshman; Edison’s Marie Philman, Fountain Valley’s Strange and Ludwicki, Cerritos Valley Christian’s Kiyoko Miller.

“I never get a chance to play against these girls,” Picchi said. “I would love to play alongside Marie, or against her. I’ve seen her a couple of times and she seems to be a nice girl. I watch and try to pick up the things they do and go, ‘I need to apply that to my game.’ Or I see the way she gets around a girl who’s boxing her out and see if that will work for me.”

Said Romeo: “She loves Marie Philman, and Marie Philman probably doesn’t know who Andrea Picchi is.”

Philman doesn’t. “That’s cool,” she said. “That blows me away.”

That’s the consequence of playing at Magnolia, where Picchi has had only one common starter the past three years. Still, the team has gone 47-23 during that time. And in the Orange League, Picchi will always play in the shadow of Brea.

“But [Brea] deserves a lot because they work so hard,” Picchi said. “I try to use that as a motivating factor--we have to work twice as hard. They did it, we can do it.

“But there are some solid players in this league--Adrienne Ratajczak at Western and Stephanie Durrett at Anaheim.”

Picchi has resisted temptation to transfer to a higher profile school.

“After my sophomore year, the four other starters graduated, and I found myself at one point thinking maybe I made a mistake [by not transferring], but that’s where the challenge comes in,” said Picchi, who likes to set high goals for herself athletically, morally and socially. “Now, being a senior, I don’t regret my decision to stay because of my friends and the school stuff.”

Romeo, in his eighth year, is glad she stayed, but would have understood if she hadn’t.

“In today’s era, these young players transfer so easily, almost at the drop of a dime, to a better program to get recognition,” he said. “She could have done that and I wouldn’t have stopped her. The No. 1 thing I hope for her is she gets a scholarship.”

Oregon and Temple have asked for video, but community college might be more realistic. Brea Olinda Coach Jeff Sink, who admires Picchi’s work ethic and would have loved to coach her, said some college is going to get a gem.

“What makes her tough [is that] she’s in that tweener mold, a tall guard who’s having a dramatic impact on the game,” he said. “Pearson at Woodbridge, Rhonda Gondringer, who plays taller than she is at Mater Dei, Philman at Edison. Tall, powerful guards who plays inside or outside. You’re even seeing that at the highest level of college and in the NBA. That’s why Picchi has been successful.”

Picchi crossed the 1,000-point career threshold last week. Through 88 games, she has shot 50.7% from the field. She’s averaging 12.6 rebounds this season, 10.6 in a four-year varsity career.

“We don’t play the caliber of teams in the Sunset League or the South County, where every game they’re going against great players,” Romeo said. “But those great players have more help on those teams than Andrea has. I think she’s a good enough player to compete against anybody in the county. I’m not saying she’s the best player in the county, but she’s not two notches below.”