Women's basketball player breaks record
Dec 08, 2005
Irvine Valley freshman women's basketball player Emily Luckeroth now has two schools' records for most points in a game.
The 5-7 guard/forward set the Palm Desert High mark for most points in a game last season with 42.
She didn't get that much Thursday night, but her 35 points in Irvine Valley's 94-63 victory over Chaffey in the first round of the Irvine Valley Tournament was a new program record.
Luckeroth passed the 33 points scored by Heather Cunningham in a game during the 1997-98 season.
“I had no idea she had that many points as the game was going on,” Irvine Valley Coach Julie Hanks said. “All I know is that she was on fire. But she is a gamer. Seeing her do what she did explains why she was the leading scorer at Palm Desert. She is a scorer. I can’t say enough about how she played.”
Luckeroth, who was a first team all-CIF player as both a junior and a senior at Palm Desert, helped Irvine Valley, which is ranked 12th in the state, put Thursday's game out of reach midway through the first half.
After falling behind early, the Lasers regained the lead, 10-9, on a three-pointer by sophomore point guard Kate Jorgenson. The basket was part of a 15-0 run.
A three-pointer by Luckeroth gave Irvine Valley (9-1) a 20-9 lead with 9:24 left in the first half.
Chaffey went nearly six minutes without scoring.
Irvine Valley moved out to a 30-18 lead on a three-pointer by freshman guard Robin Smith.
And then Luckeroth ended a solid first half for the Lasers with a two big plays.
She was fouled making a three-pointer with 1:51 left in the half. Luckeroth then sank the free throw for the four-point play to give Irvine Valley a 46-29 lead.
Luckeroth made a three-pointer with 18 seconds left to give Irvine Valley a 48-31 advantage.
The Lasers led, 48-33, at halftime. As a team, Irvine Valley shot 15 of 31 from the field and made 5 of 11 three-point attempts.
Luckeroth finished with 15 points in the first half.
She went for 20 points in the second half, as Irvine Valley out-scored Chaffey, 94-63, over the final 20 minutes.
Luckeroth finished making 10 of 19 field goals from the field and 5 of 6 from three-point range.
She also made 10 of 11 free throws.
Several other Lasers also stood out in the victory.
Sophomore forward Vanessa Dominguez finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and five steals.
Smith had 15 points, eight assists and five steals.
Sophomore guard Monique Newsome gave the team a lift off the bench with six points, four rebounds and four steals.
Irvine Valley had 19 steals as a team. Chaffey committed 28 turnovers.
“I thought we played pretty well overall,” Hanks said. “We did a lot of good things, especially defensively. We were able to put a lot of pressure on them, get some turnovers and easy baskets. And a lot of people contributed, which was good to see.”
Other winners in opening round games of the tournament were Compton, San Diego Mesa and Santa Barbara. Compton, which is ranked 10th in the state, defeated Golden West, 88-33, San Diego Mesa edged Merced, which was ranked 11th in the state, in overtime, 69-68, and Santa Barbara beat Grossmont, 62-56.