Strong second half leads men's basketball team to victory
Jan 09, 2008
The Irvine Valley men's basketball team had its hands full with Orange Coast for the first 20 minutes of Wednesday night's Orange Empire Conference opener.
The Lasers, who are ranked third in the state, trailed three different times before coming back to take a 32-26 lead at the end of the first half.
But the Lasers found their groove both offensively and defensively in the second half to pull away for a 71-39 victory.
The win improved Irvine Valley's record to a program best 17-2 overall. Orange Coast slipped to 4-14.
The Lasers out-scored Orange Coast, 39-13, in the second half on 64 percent shooting (16 of 25) from the field. IVC also held the Pirates to just three field goals (3 of 21) in the second half. The Pirates shot 14.3 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes.
Irvine Valley out-scored Orange Coast, 23-6, over the first 11:05 of the second half. A layup by sophomore center Bryce Webster off a pass from freshman point guard Perry Webster gave IVC a 55-32 lead with 8:55 left.
Irvine Valley increased its lead to 67-35 on another layup by Bryce Webster with 4:20 to play.
The Lasers took their largest lead of the night shortly after. A layup by sophomore center Jaron Devine with 2:35 to play gave IVC a 69-35 advantage.
Sophomore forward Blake Wallace, who scored the first six points of the game for the Lasers, led the way with 21 points and nine rebounds. He made 9 of 11 shots from the field and all three of his free throws. Wallace also had three blocks and two steals.
Sophomore wing Kashif Watson fnished with 13 points, nine reobunds and four steals. Sophomore guard Jason Toney added 11 points, three assists and three steals and Bryce Webster had 10 points, five rebounds and two steals.
The Lasers also got five points and four assists from Perry Webster and five assists, four rebounds and two steals from freshman point guard La'Shard Anderson.
Irvine Valley won the battle on the boards by a lot. The Lasers out-rebounded Orange Coast, 49-27.
Orange Coast, which finished shooting just 22.2 percent for the game, was paced by Brian Gee. He had 10 points, including making three three-pointers.
Irvine Valley has a big match-up on Friday against Fullerton, in a game that might determine the favorite for the conference title.
Fullerton, with a 14-4 record overall, is ranked eighth in the state.
Game time is 5:30 p.m.