Posting up: Angela, Sutton Villa find new home with Pleasant Grove girls basketball
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- Pleasant Grove’s Sutton Villa scores inside against Maple Mountain in a Region 7 girls basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove girls basketball coach Angela Villa (left) has a discussion with an official during a Region 7 game against Maple Mountain on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Sutton Villa (center), a 6-6 sophomore, is surrounded by Maple Mountain’s Leah Bailey (right) and Shay Brown in a Region 7 girls basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Maple Mountain’s Shay Brown (right) helps teammate Jemima Girfffin off the floor in a Region 7 girls basketball game against Pleasant Grove on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Zuri Nordstrom tries to get around the defense of Maple Mountain’s Leah Bailey in a Region 7 girls basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Tabi Clark takes a jump shot against Maple Mountain in a Region 7 girls basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Sutton Villa wins the opening tip against Maple Mountain in a Region 7 girls basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Maple Mountain’s Leah Bailey takes a shot against (from left), Tabi Clark, Sutton Villa and Cash Connors of Pleasant Grove in a Region 7 girls basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Maple Mountain’s Leah Bailey (23) drives around Pleasant Grove defenders in a Region 7 girls basketball game on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
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- Maple Mountain girls basketball coach Dave Lainhart, left, reacts during a Region 7 game against Pleasant Grove on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
After Tuesday’s 54-41 Region 7 victory at Maple Mountain, the Pleasant Grove girls basketball team shook hands with their opponent and dutifully went into the visiting team locker room.
First-year Vikings coach Angela Villa did not join them.
Villa decided before the season started she would let the players handle their own post-game, something she picked up from former University of Utah and current Los Angeles Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts.
“I adopted it, and the girls love it,” Villa said. “They celebrate each other. They lift each other when someone comes in who had a bad game. It’s been the best thing I’ve seen for them. It’s what they do for each other after these games, and I don’t think we’re going to change. It was a trial run this year.”
The move also allows Villa a chance to watch game video before she makes comments to the girls the next day.
“We see things that are muddled in games because we’re hyper focused on some things and not super focused on others,” Villa said. “So I step back and let them breathe. I watch film and then I go, ‘OK, that wasn’t so bad,’ or ‘that was really good defense.’ And I get to calm down and then approach them with a clear head and a clear view of the film.”
The locker room policy is just one reason why Villa and the Vikings are currently undefeated (18-0) and No. 1 in RPI in Class 5A.
“I will say there’s a lot to learn from losing,” Villa said. “Losing is the best teacher ever. But when you get this far and you haven’t lost, you don’t want to lose. Earlier this week we had a conversation with the girls and told them, ‘You guys need to breathe, because when you lose, you forget to breathe. When you keep winning, it’s hard to breathe because you’re just looking for the next thing.’ This IQ of this team is off the charts. They have an understanding of the game far beyond mine, truly.”
Villa, who played two seasons at BYU (1997-99), is a Burgess: Her brother, Chris, is a assistant on the Cougar men’s team. She was an assistant at Provo last season and started looking into a head coaching job last spring. She said she turned down Pleasant Grove when they first offered her the job, mainly due to fears of having to uproot her daughter, 6-foot-6 sophomore Sutton Villa, who played at Provo. Eventually, PG came back to talk about the job again and Angela Villa decided to take it, even though it appeared her daughter would stay at Provo.
“I really felt pulled to do more,” Coach Villa said. “I really believe girls need to have female mentors as their head coaches. They need to see women in that spot, so they would say, ‘Oh, I can do that.’ I believe girls who play sports become women who lead. And what better way to see women leading?”
One day — after returning home from a trip to Disneyland — Sutton Villa approached her mother and said she needed to go with her to Pleasant Grove.
“I wanted to stay at Provo because I had friends there,” Sutton Villa said. “People were saying, ‘There’s no way she’s staying at Provo.’ So I really didn’t know what to do. My mom ended up convincing me out of nowhere, I guess. But I’m very happy that I transferred. My teammates are so nice and sweet to me. They really care about me. They love me and I love them so much.”
There were others who wanted the same experience: Zuri Nordstrom and Siri Burgess (Lone Peak) and the Sikander sisters (Janiece and Aaliyah) transferred to Pleasant Grove in the offseason.
Coach Villa said she was uncomfortable with all of the rumors but got some good advice from former BYU all-conference player Morgan Bailey, who is coaching at Utah.
“She said, ‘Angela, it’s rare for girls to play with a true 5. Every girl that’s in high school, you’ve got to fill in where you are needed. So when you have a true center who loves that position and doesn’t care to be anywhere else, girls naturally want to player their own positions.'”
So why are the Vikings undefeated?
“Because they have such good camaraderie off the court,” Coach Villa said. “They hang out with each other after practice and go to lunch. They’re always hanging out with each other on the weekends. They really like each other. They also have a great mentality.
“The Sikander sisters came with a bulldog mentality. They’re just relentless on the perimeter. Zuri, she came with a winning mentality. She doesn’t know how to lose and that’s been a part of her past. Tabi Clark, has a scorer’s mentality. She’s got to get the ball to the hole, and she’ll figure out how to do it. Cash Connors, I know when she’s in the game, the boards are going to be in her hands. And I know that all eyes are on Sutton.”
Sutton Villa has been well-taught, continually keeping the ball high and improving her footwork and physicality around the rim.
“I have to push back,” she said. “Sometimes I forget that I can push back. I just have to keep that mentality that I can push back and that I can get to the basket, even when they try and push me out.”
Trailing 8-6 in the first quarter on Tuesday, Pleasant Grove scored 11 straight points — five from Villa — and led 17-8 early in the second. Maple Mountain rallied with 3-pointers from Taizley Bell and Leah Bailey, to close to 17-16 at the 5:07 mark.
The Vikings held a 23-20 lead and scored the final six points of the quarter, including a triple by Connors, for a 29-20 halftime advantage.
Villa scored six straight points to open the second half and Aaliyah Sikander popped a 3-pointer for a 38-25 lead for PG. The Vikings took a 42-27 lead into the fourth quarter. Maple Mountain cut the deficit to eight, 44-36, on a Bailey 3-pointer but Villa scored four points and Connors put back an offensive rebound to make it 50-36 with two minutes to play.
Villa scored 21 points to lead Pleasant Grove, with 12 points from Clark and nine from Connors.
Bailey, who came into the game averaging 20.6 per contest, led Maple Mountain with 23 on five 3-pointers.
Pleasant Grove (18-0 overall, 3-0 5A Region 7) hosts Timpview on Friday and Maple Mountain (12-7,
