Irvine Valley's men's basketball team will look to get back on track Friday night when it hosts Santa Ana in an important Orange Empire Conference contest at 5 p.m.
IVC suffered a tough 95-94 conference loss in overtime in its first trip to Copper Mountain in Joshua Tree on Wednesday.
The defeat dropped the team's record to 12-8 overall and 1-2 in conference. It was the Lasers' second straight loss in OEC play.
IVC tied the game at 77-77 with a putback basket by sophomore guard Daniel Hernandez at the buzzer in regulation and was up by as many as five points in overtime.
But the Fighting Cacti battled back and took the lead. It was back and forth over the final minute of action.
Copper Mountain was up, 95-94, and freshman guard Daniel Chatman's off- balance layup was just off the mark at the OT buzzer for the Lasers.
Chatman led IVC with a career-high 31 points.
Hernandez chipped in 17 points, freshman forward Jake Linsky had 12 points and freshman forward Omeed Kargozan and sophomore forward Zane Paddon contributed eight points each for Irvine Valley.
On the season, Linsky is averaging 12.6 points and 9.3 rebounds, Hernandez is averaging 10.4 points and 2.4 assists, Paddon averages 6.4 points and 4.8 rebounds and sophomore forward Parker Sims averages 7.1 points and 5.4 rebounds.
Santa Ana has record of 8-7 overall and is 1-1 in the Orange Empire Conference. The Dons defeated Riverside, 88-84, in a big conference game on Wednesday.
Tyson Powell was the story for Santa Ana.
Powell came off the bench and poured in 17 points and seven rebounds in just 20 minutes.
The sophomore went 5 of 10 from the field and 3 of 3 from three-point range.
D' Caran Anderson was the high point man for the Dons on the night with 21 points.
Xavier Gunter had 16 rebounds to go along with 16 points while Keandre Broussard scored 12 points with six assists and four rebounds.
On the season, Cameron High leads the way for Santa Ana, averaging 18.4 points per game.
Gunter averages 14.4 points and an impressive 12.1 rebounds and 1.6 steals, Anderson averages 12.8 points and Broussard is averaging 11.4 points and 4.2 rebounds a game.
