Irvine Valley's men's basketball team wrapped up the 2017-18 regular season with a 78-58 loss at home to Santiago Canyon in an Orange Empire Conference game on Thursday night at home.
It was the first ever meeting between the two teams. Santiago Canyon is in its first season as a program.
Irvine Valley's record slipped to 14-15 overall and 3-9 in conference, while Santiago Canyon improved to 19-9 overall and 6-6 in conference.
The Lasers led, 11-8, on a three-pointer by sophomore forward Zane Paddon with 11:57 left in the first half.
But Santiago Canyon went on a 10-0 run over the next two minutes to take the lead for good.
A three-point play by Xavier Preston put the Hawks ahead, 18-11, with 9:59 left in the half.
And Antoine Jenkins closed out the half by nailing a deep three-pointer to give Santiago Canyon a 35-28 lead.
The Lasers had trouble with Jenkins all night, but especially in the first half. He had 22 points on 9 of 12 shooting, including making all four of his three-pointers in the first half.
The Hawks build a double digit lead early in the second half. Back-to-back layups by Rodney Henderson pushed the Santiago Canyon lead to 43-30 with 15:24 to play.
IVC fought back, going on a 14-4 run. A layup by Daniel Chatman and then a basket by sophomore forward Parker Sims off an assist by Chatman cut the Santiago Canyon lead to 47-44 with 11:58 to play.
But that was as close as the Lasers would get.
Henderson drilled a three-pointer to put Santiago Canyon up, 58-47, with 8:32 to play. Santiago Canyon closed out the final 10 minutes of the game by out-scoring Irvine Valley, 26-11.
Freshman guard Isaiah Mahmud led IVC with 14 points and six rebounds. Sophomore guard Daniel Hernandez finished with 13 points and five assists, Sims had 12 points, nine rebounds and three assists and Paddon ended with nine points and nine rebounds.
Jenkins finished with 31 points for Santiago Canyon and Henderson had 28 points and 12 rebounds.
The Hawks shot 49.2 percent (30 of 61) for the game, including going 11 of 27 (40.7 percent) from the three-point line.
Santiago Canyon also turned 16 Irvine Valley turnovers into 26 points on the night.
