Ticha Penicheiro

Ticha Penicheiro
Penicheiro in 2019
Personal information
Born (1974-09-18) September 18, 1974 (age 49)
Figueira da Foz, Portugal
NationalityPortuguese
Listed height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Listed weight146 lb (66 kg)
Career information
CollegeOld Dominion (1994–1998)
WNBA draft1998: 1st round, 2nd overall pick
Selected by the Sacramento Monarchs
Playing career1998–2012
PositionPoint guard
Number21
Career history
1998–2009Sacramento Monarchs
2000–2001Lotos Gdynia
2001–2002Basket Parma
2003–2004UMMC Ekaterinburg
2004–2005Valenciennes
2005–2007Spartak Moscow
2008TTT Riga
2009–2010Geas Basket
2010–2011Los Angeles Sparks
2010PF Umbertide
2010–2011Sport Algés e Dafunto
2011USK Praha
2012Galatasaray
2012Chicago Sky
Career highlights and awards
Stats at WNBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com
Women's Basketball Hall of Fame

Patrícia "Ticha" Nunes Penicheiro OIH (September 18, 1974) is a Portuguese sports agent and former basketball player. She played for the Sacramento Monarchs of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) for most of her professional career. She was a four-time WNBA All-Star and a three-time All-WNBA selection. Regarded as one of the best point guards of all time, she ranks second all-time in career assists and led the league in assists seven times. She won a WNBA championship with the Monarchs in 2005. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.

College years

Penicheiro was born and raised in Figueira da Foz, Portugal. Penicheiro played for several professional clubs through her teenage years, though she did not play at the senior level until after she starred for Old Dominion University college basketball team. She played at Old Dominion from 1994 to 1998 and helped lead the Lady Monarchs to the 1997 NCAA Championship game. In 1997, Penicheiro was named to the Final Four All-Tournament team. During her playing time at ODU, Penicheiro collected 1,304 career points and finished her career as ODU's all-time steal leader with 591. She is second all-time at ODU on the career assist list to another ODU great, Nancy Lieberman, with 939. She is the Colonial Athletic Association's all-time leader in both assists and steals.

Penicheiro is a two-time Kodak All-American, selected in 1997 and 1998. She became ODU's second winner of the prestigious Lifetime/Wade Trophy and the first international player to win the honor. A four-time All-CAA honoree, Ticha was named the conference's Player-of-the Year in 1995-96 and 1996-97 while also claiming the Rookie of the Year award in 1994–95. She graduated from Old Dominion in 1998 with degrees in communications and interdisciplinary studies, and was inducted into the ODU Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

Old Dominion statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high
Year Team GP Points FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1995 Old Dominion 33 283 .427 .333 .552 4.8 6.2 4.0 0.2 8.6
1996 Old Dominion 32 284 .491 .289 .671 4.6 7.1 4.3 0.3 8.9
1997 Old Dominion 36 393 .443 .310 .649 4.5 7.5 4.5 0.3 10.9
1998 Old Dominion 32 344 .408 .328 .629 5.1 7.5 5.0 0.2 10.8
Career 133 1,304 .440 .316 .628 4.7 7.1 4.4 0.3 9.8

Source

WNBA career

In 1998, Penicheiro joined the Sacramento Monarchs as a rookie, finishing third in the WNBA Rookie of the Year award voting. As a four-time WNBA All-Star player, she has twice tied the WNBA's record with 16 assists in a single game. In 1999, she was selected as a WNBA first-team player. This was also the year she set her WNBA high in points, with 27 against the Minnesota Lynx. In 2001, she was selected as a member of the WNBA's second team.

She had, as of June 19, 2003, 1,027 career points in the WNBA; for an average of 6.8 per game, 1,121 assists; for a total of 7.5 per game, 615 rebounds; for a total of 4.1 per game, and 322 steals, for a total of 2.15 per game.

Penicheiro retired as the all-time WNBA leader in total assists and assists per game, although both records have since been surpassed, respectively by Sue Bird and Courtney Vandersloot. Penicheiro also holds the WNBA single-game record for most steals with 10.

Penicheiro is well known for her consistently flashy style of play. In 2005, she helped the Sacramento Monarchs win their first ever WNBA championship title.

After the Monarchs franchise became defunct, Penicheiro signed with the Los Angeles Sparks. In 2011, her second year with the team, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in the fifteen-year history of the WNBA.

In February 2012, Penicheiro signed with the Chicago Sky, but her season statistics were significantly diminished due to injuries, and on September 18, she announced that she would retire from the WNBA at the end of the 2012 season.

Penicheiro was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

In 2016, Penicheiro was named in the WNBA Top 20@20, a list of the WNBA's top 20 players of all time in celebration of the league's twentieth anniversary. She was also named to the WNBA's 25th anniversary team, The W25, in 2021.

WNBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 TO  Turnovers per game  FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage
 Bold  Career best ° League leader
Denotes seasons in which Penicheiro won a WNBA championship

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
1998 Sacramento 30 30 36.0° .333 .233 .642 4.7 7.5° 2.2 0.1 3.87 6.3
1999 Sacramento 32 32 35.0 .320 .158 .664 4.8 7.1° 2.1 0.2 4.22 7.3
2000 Sacramento 30 30 31.2 .368 .200 .579 3.0 7.9° 2.3 0.2 2.37 6.9
2001 Sacramento 23 22 32.3 .339 .262 .766 3.7 7.5° 1.7 0.4 2.78 6.3
2002 Sacramento 24 24 35.5 .377 .250 .728 4.3 8.0° 2.7 0.0 2.88 8.5
2003 Sacramento 34 34 32.0 .302 .250 .579 3.5 6.7° 1.8 0.0 2.38 5.4
2004 Sacramento 32 32 29.4 .354 .338 .714 3.1 4.9 1.9 0.1 2.18 6.0
2005 Sacramento 34 33 27.3 .314 .195 .790 2.9 4.4 1.4 0.2 1.97 5.7
2006 Sacramento 34 34 24.9 .339 .194 .792 2.7 3.4 1.7 0.1 1.97 5.4
2007 Sacramento 32 32 23.7 .314 .214 .822 2.6 4.5 1.5 0.0 1.88 5.7
2008 Sacramento 33 33 25.9 .374 .286 .809 3.0 5.2 2.0 0.1 2.64 8.6
2009 Sacramento 30 28 24.1 .324 .111 .814 2.7 5.2 1.0 0.1 2.13 4.9
2010 Los Angeles 32 30 26.3 .410 .111 .819 4.0 6.9° 1.3 0.1 2.25 4.9
2011 Los Angeles 34 23 23.7 .486 .417 .868 2.8 4.8 0.8 0.1 2.09 6.0
2012 Chicago 18 5 12.8 .375 .200 .545 1.3 2.1 0.4 0.2 2.00 1.8
Career 15 years, 3 teams 453 422 28.2 .351 .248 .731 3.3 5.7 1.7 0.1 2.50 6.1

Postseason

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG TO PPG
1999 Sacramento 1 1 20.0 .200 .000 1.000 4.0 3.0 1.0 0.0 2.00 4.0
2000 Sacramento 2 2 38.5 .250 .500 .833 3.5 7.0° 2.0 0.0 3.00 8.0
2001 Sacramento 5 5 32.6 .250 .368 1.000 3.8 6.6° 0.6 0.8 1.80 6.2
2003 Sacramento 6 6 23.8 .333 .250 .875 2.3 3.0 1.0 0.5 1.17 4.2
2004 Sacramento 6 6 32.2 .222 .133 .688 3.3 5.3 2.5 0.3 3.17 4.2
2005 Sacramento 6 6 27.0 .323 .000 .800 4.0 5.2 1.0 0.2 2.33 5.3
2006 Sacramento 9 9 23.8 .294 .286 .647 2.3 3.8 1.2 0.0 1.22 5.0
2007 Sacramento 3 3 23.0 .273 .000 .600 2.3 5.0 2.3 0.0 3.33 6.0
2008 Sacramento 3 3 31.3 .486 .750 .667 4.0 6.3° 2.3 0.3 1.67 13.7
2010 Los Angeles 2 2 29.5 .455 .000 1.000 2.5 2.5 2.5 0.0 3.00 6.0
Career 10 years, 2 teams 43 43 27.7 .314 .288 .747 3.1 4.7 1.5 0.3 2.07 5.8

International career

Penicheiro was a member of Portugal's national women's basketball team. She was also on the Spartak Moscow Region team, with Tina Thompson, Sue Bird, and Diana Taurasi. She played for Galatasaray Medical Park of Turkey in the 2011–12 season.

Later career

When inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, she was an active agent with about 30 clients, among them current WNBA players Kayla McBride and Courtney Vandersloot.

Personal life

Penicheiro is a supporter of the Special Olympics. She also supports ovarian cancer research in honor of one of her close friends who was diagnosed with the disease. Besides her native Portuguese, she speaks English, Spanish and conversational Italian. Her father, João, is a former basketball player and now coaches her older brother, Paulo, who plays professionally in Portugal. She became an aunt when her brother and sister-in-law gave birth to their son João Miguel in 2009. Penicheiro also enjoys listening to R&B music and Hip-Hop and is an avid collector of watches and clothes.

On February 20, 2013, Penicheiro became an American citizen, taking the oath with 1,200 others at the Sacramento Convention Center.


This page was last updated at 2024-01-26 06:15 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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