Men's basketball team honors sophomores at year-end banquet

Courtesy of Toni Lavacot
Courtesy of Toni Lavacot

Irvine Valley's men's basketball team held its end of the year banquet last week.

Irvine Valley, guided by 20-year coach Jerry Hernandez, finished with a record of 16-11 and went 9-3 in the Orange Empire Conference for second place.

The Lasers just missed out on making the Southern California Regional Playoffs.

Among the highlights for the team this year was winning its own Irvine Valley College Classic and winning its final four games of the regular season.

Sophomore center Andrew Bastien and sophomore guard Chris Salas were named first team all-conference and sophomore guards Ronnie Harris and Jimmy Golden were picked second team all-conference.

Several awards were handed at the event.

Salas and Golden were named co-most valuable players of the team.

The best rebounder and defensive player of the year awards went to Bastien.

The scholar athlete honor went to Golden and sophomore forward Chris Porter was picked as the team's most inspirational player.

Irvine Valley loses seven sophomores off of this year's team, including Golden, Salas, Bastien, Hall, Porter and sophomore guards Jalen Hall and Kody Eckert.