The Irvine Valley men's basketball team is one win away from the state tournament.
The Lasers, seeded sixth in the Southern California Regional playoffs, defeated No. 12 College of the Desert, 90-75, Friday night at IVC.
Irvine Valley (27-4) will play the winner of No. 15 Cerritos and No. 3 L.A. Trade Tech next Saturday in a regional final.
Four teams from Southern California and four teams from Northern California will make up the field at the state tournament March 13-16 in Stockton.
This is Irvine Valley's second trip to a regional final.
The last time was in 2001-02 when the Lasers lost a close game by four points to Cerritos.
Irvine Valley has never been to the state tournament.
"We were just glad to win tonight," Irvine Valley Coach Jerry Hernandez said Friday night after his team set a program record for wins in a season with 27. "We didn't play great. I didn't think we were that sharp and we still beat a league champion by 15 points. But there are some things we have to do better if we want to keep on playing."
Irvine Valley shot 56.9 percent (33 of 58) for the game, but committed 18 turnovers, shot just 59.5 percent (22 of 37) from the free throw line and gave up 20 offensive rebounds to Desert.
The Lasers got some help from Desert, which shot 36.0 percent (27 of 75) from the field and only 48.4 percent (15 of 31) from the free throw line.
"We did enough to win," Hernandez said. "That was a tough team with how athletic they were and the way they really liked to get out and run. I think our depth was the difference. We had some guys really step up tonight. Franklin Session really had a nice game for us."
Session, a freshman guard, came off the bench to lead the Lasers in scoring. He finished with a season-high 16 points. Session added six rebounds.
IVC, which was the second place team out of the Orange Empire Conference, had six plays score in double figures in all.
Sophomore center Bryce Webster, who was held scoreless in the first half, had 13 points and seven rebounds, sophomore forward Blake Wallace had 12 points and 13 rebounds and freshman point guard Perry Webster and sophomore wing Kashif Watson each added 12 points.
Sophomore guard Jason Toney finished with 10 points and freshman point guard La'Shard Anderson contributed nine points, five assists and three steals.
Irvine Valley led, 40-32, at halftime, but went on a 7-1 run to open the second half. A dunk by Bryce Webster and then one free throw by Blake Wallace gave IVC a 47-33 with 18:28 left to go in the game.
Desert never got close than the halftime margin in the final 20 minutes and IVC led by as many as 17 points in the second half.
Desert, which was a tri-champion in the Foothill Conference, was led by Julius Lang's 26 points and 17 rebounds. Desert finished the season at 21-10.
*Note - the 1996-97 Irvine Valley team held the previous record for most wins in a season. That squad, which won IVC's only Orange Empire Conference title, was 26-9.