Men's basketball team edges LA Valley
Jan 05, 2008
The Irvine Valley men's basketball team won its fifth straight game and continued the best start in program history with a 74-68 non-conference victory over LA Valley Saturday night at home.
Irvine Valley, which is ranked sixth in the state, improved its record to 16-2 on the season.
The Lasers were led by red-shirt freshman guard Jeff Ledbetter and sophomore forward Blake Wallace with 13 points each. Ledbetter also had a team-high seven rebounds in the contest.
Sophomore center Bryce Webster added 12 points, including scoring seven of IVC's final 10 points to help put the game away.
LA Valley, which is ranked 18th in the state, pulled to within 60-58 on a three-point play by Demetrius Malone with 8:03 left to play.
Sophomore wing Kashif Watson countered with a basket to put IVC ahead, 64-58. After a free throw by LA Valley cut the lead to five points, Webster scored inside with 4:18 left to put the Lasers up, 66-59.
But LA Valley scored five straight points. Gino Riney's jumper made it a 66-64 game with 2:48 left.
Webster then knocked down two free throws with 2:22 to play to give IVC a 68-64 lead. He made two more free throws with 1:34 left to make it a 70-66 game.
A basket by Malone with 1:18 left kept LA Valley in it at 70-68.
Webster then put the game out of reach by scoring, getting fouled and then knocking down the free throw. The three-point play pushed Irvine Valley's lead to 73-68 with 52.6 seconds left.
Sophomore guard Jason Toney and freshman point guard La'Shard Anderson each added nine points. Anderson also had five assists and Watson and freshman point guard Perry Webster each had seven points for IVC.
LA Valley (11-5) was led by Riney, who finished with 17 points and Shaun Johnson, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds. The Monarchs did play tough despite being without leading scorer Germel Coleman (18.9 points per game). Coleman was out with an injury.
Irvine Valley plays again on Wednesday, opening Orange Empire Conference action with a home game against Orange Coast at 5:30 p.m.