Women's basketball team wins big over Golden West
Feb 10, 2006
The Irvine Valley women's basketball team finally found its groove, scoring 65 points in the second half and running away with a 105-58 Orange Empire Conference win Friday night over Golden West at home.
The Lasers had lost three straight games and five of their last six contests. And they were in a tough battle with Golden West in the first half before turning it on.
The 105 points was the second most ever scored by Irvine Valley in a game. The high is 108 in a win against Citrus in 1999.
Irvine Valley came close to having another record set. Freshman guard Robin Smith led the Lasers with 34 points. The school record for most points is 35 set earlier this year by freshman guard Emily Luckeroth.
Smith made 12 of 20 shots from the field, including 7 of 9 three-pointers. She converted 3 of 3 free throws. Smith also contributed six assists.
She put the game away early in the second half for Irvine Valley. The first half was back and forth most of the way. The Lasers held a 40-33 lead at the intermission.
But after Golden West scored the first basket of the second half, Irvine Valley went on a 29-2 run to break the game open.
Smith scored the first nine points of the run, all on three-pointers, and had 15 points in all, all on three-pointers, during the streak. She was 5 for 5 on three-pointers during that time. Her fifth three-pointer of the second half gave the Lasers a 69-37 lead with 14:26 to play.
A 20-2 run a few minutes later moved Irvine Valley out to a 38-point lead (91-43) with 8:16 left.
Irvine Valley crossed the 100-point (101-54) plateau on a driving layup by guard Laura Murphy with 1:31 remaining.
Irvine Valley ended up shooting 63.6 percent from the floor (21 of 33) in the second half and was an even better 72.7 percent (8 of 11) on three-pointers in the half.
The Lasers finished with 26 assists and also had 14 steals.
Forward Vanessa Dominguez ended with 28 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and four steals for the Lasers. It was her 19th double-double (points and rebounds) in 29 games this season.
Luckeroth had 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists and guard Cassey Brick added 12 points and four assists.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 21-8 overall and 5-7 in conference play. Irvine Valley went into Friday's game in sixth place in the conference standings, two games Santa Ana and Fullerton, who were tied for fourth place.
The Lasers finish up the season next week against two of the top teams in conference. They host Orange Coast on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and then travel to Riverside on Friday for another 5:30 p.m. game.