Men's basketball team wins late at Riverside
Jan 16, 2008
The Irvine Valley men's basketball team earned its second straight big-time victory in Orange Empire Conference play.
After beating eighth-ranked Fullerton last Friday night in double overtime, the third-ranked Lasers topped fourth-ranked Riverside at Riverside, 63-62, Wednesday night.
Riverside had a chance to pull out the win in the final seconds, but
sophomore James Simmons' running baseline lay-up hit the side of the
basket and Irvine Valley's Bryce Webster grabbed the loose ball as the
horn sounded.
The win, which was Irvine Valley's eighth in a row, improved its record to 19-2 overall and 3-0 in conference. Riverside slipped to 17-5 overall and 1-1 in conference.
"Wow," Irvine Valley Coach Jerry Hernandez said after his team pulled out another close one. "I really thought we had lost it on free throws. We didn't play great. But we did enough."
It was Webster, IVC's sophomore center, who did the most for the Lasers.
The 6-9 Webster, who is headed to Utah State, finished with 19 points and five rebounds. He made 9 of 11 shots from the field.
"We went to him and he really came through for us," Hernandez said. "He really won the battle against their post guys."
Irvine Valley won despite, as Hernandez mentioned, shooting horribly from the free throw line. The Lasers made just 9 of 22 attempts.
Irvine Valley did make 11 of 20 shots from the field in the second half to pull out the win. Riverside went cold in the second half, particularly down the stretch.
Riverside scored just two points over the final six minutes.
Riverside actually led, 60-55, with just over six minutes remaining, but the Tigers had trouble scoring after that.
The Tigers finished the second half shooting 40.7 percent from the floor.
The game featured six ties, four in the second half, and 10 lead changes, three in the final period.
Sophomore forward Blake Wallace added 12 points and six rebounds. Freshman guard Jeff Ledbetter had 10 points and freshman point guard La'Shard Anderson finished with nine points and four assists.
Riverside was paced by Charles Garcia, who had 14 points. Anthony Dandy added 11.
The game was the first of six straight road games for the Lasers. Irvine Valley plays again on Friday at Santa Ana at 5:30 p.m.