Irvine Valley's men's basketball team opens the Southern California Regional Playoffs on Wednesday with a first-round game at Grossmont.
Irvine Valley, which was seeded No. 18 in the state in the last poll of the regular season, received the 18th-seed in the So. Cal. Playoffs.
The Lasers finished the regular season with a record of 24-4 overall. Their 24 wins were among the most in the state.
Only Fresno City (28-2), City College of San Francisco (27-1), Antelope Valley (26-4), San Bernardino Valley (25-7) and Chaffey (25-5) finished with more wins than the Lasers. Saddleback (24-5) had the same amount of victories as IVC.
Irvine Valley finished third in the Orange Empire Conference, one game behind co-champions Saddleback and Santa Ana.
Irvine Valley was ranked No. 1 in the state over a three-week period in late December/early January after it started the season 12-0 and was later 18-1.
The Lasers are led by all-conference players Shaquille Hunter, Declan Daly, Chris Porter and Dathon Spencer. Hunter, Daly and Porter were named first team all-conference, while Spencer was picked to the second team.
Hunter, a sophomore guard, is averaging 14.9 points per game this season. He also has 49 made three-pointers. Hunter made two key free throws as Irvine Valley held off Riverside, 48-46, in its regular season finale last week.
Daly, a sophomore center, is averaging 8.9 points and 7.2 rebounds and is shooting 59.2 percent from the field on the year.
Porter, a freshman forward, is averaging 7.9 points and 4.7 rebounds. Porter had an important three-point play and then three-pointer in the second half as Irvine Valley beat Riverside last week.
Spencer, a sophomore guard, is the spark plug off the IVC bench. He is averaging 6.3 points per game.
Grossmont, won a share of the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference North Division last week with a 74-67 victory over Mt. San Jacinto. Mt. San Jacinto was ranked No. 1 in Southern California and No. 2 in the state at the time. Tyson Kygar scored 16 points, Andres Jimenez had 16 points and seven rebounds, Yuel Hagos added 12 points and former Mission Viejo High standout Ben Hayes had 10 points for IVC.
Grossmont tied Mt. San Jacinto with an 8-1 record in conference for the title. It was Grossmont's first conference title since 2001.
Grossmont has a record of 18-8 overall. It was unranked in the state and Southern California Regional Polls last week. Grossmont was No. 14 in Southern California in the Feb. 10 Poll.
The Griffins are paced by Kygar, who averages 17.8 points per game. Mark Ogden is averaging 15.5 points and 10.4 rebounds, Tim Patrick averages 9.6 points and Hayes averages 8.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.
Coach Doug Weber was named co-coach of the year in the PCAC. Kygar and Ogden were named to the conference's all-first team and Patrick and Hayes were picked second team.
The winner of Wednesday night's game moves on to face No. 2 seed San Bernardino Valley on Saturday in a second-round game.
