Men's basketball team drops two of three at Saddleback tourney
Dec 21, 2008
The Irvine Valley men's basketball team has a record of 9-8 overall after dropping two of three games in each of two recent tournaments.
The Lasers went 1-2 in the Rio Hondo Tournament Dec. 11-13 and then 1-2 in the Saddleback Tournament Dec. 18-20.
In the Rio Hondo Tournament, Irvine Valley had a solid 86-83 win over a ranked LA City team, but then dropped games against Chaffey (87-67) and Rio Hondo. IVC led at halftime against Chaffey and were up late against Rio Hondo.
In the Saddleback tourney this past weekend, the team's two losses were to very good teams and both games were close.
The Lasers fell to Mt. San Jacinto, 59-57, after holding a late lead. Sophomore forward Brandon Hucks led the team with 13 points and 10 rebounds and sophomore center Matt Ballard added 10 points.
IVC then beat Gavilan, 69-42, behind 16 points from freshman forward Kwame Alexander and 13 points from sophomore forward Jon Reed.
The Lasers closed out the tournament on Sunday with a 78-71 loss to LA Trade Tech.
Sophomore guard Jeff Ledbetter finished with 22 points and Alexander had 12 points for Irvine Valley.
Trade Tech was the team that defeated IVC in the Southern California Regional Playoff finals last year.
Irvine Valley doesn't play again until Dec. 30 when it hosts El Camino in a non-conference game at 7 p.m.