The Irvine Valley women's basketball team moved a stop closer to a possible Southern California Regional Playoff berth with a 66-50 win at Santa Ana last Friday.
The win improved Irvine Valley's record to 16-13 overall and 4-7 in conference. Santa Ana slipped to 9-20 overall and 2-9 in conference.
The Lasers
scored the first three points of the game and never trailed after that. IVC led by as many as 18 points in the first
half before taking a 29-17 advantage into the break.
The
Dons opened the second half on a 13-2 run in the first eight minutes
capped off by an Andrea Hernandez jumper that cut the Lasers lead to
30-31.
IVC held a 45-41 lead with 6:30 left to play and proceeded to
extend its lead to 16 points with just under two minutes to play.
Freshman guard Erika Garcia led Irvine Valley with 19 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and three steals. She made 8 of 12 shots from the floor.
Two other had big games. Freshman forward Sydney Hughes had a double-double with 16 points and 12 rebounds. She added three blocks. Hughes made 6 of 8 shots from the field. And freshman guard Ivy Melo chipped in 12 points. She made 3 of 5 three-pointers.
Irvine Valley shot 44.1 percent for the game.
The Lasers play again on Wednesday at Cypress at 7:30 p.m. in their regular season finale.