Irvine Valley's men's basketball team had a great chance to pull off the upset in the first round of the So. Cal. Regional Playoffs on Wednesday night at San Bernardino Valley.
After a slow start to the game, the Lasers came roaring back and led, 53-48, with 3:41 left in the contest only to see the Wolverines push the game into overtime and come away with a 68-62 victory to move into the second round of the postseason.
Irvine Valley, which was the No. 19 seed, finished the year with a record of 17-12 overall. No. 14 San Bernardino Valley moves on to take on No. 3 Mt. SAC on Saturday.
The Lasers got strong games from a number of players, including sophomore guard Roman Swizek, sophomore post player Jesse Stines and sophomore wing Marcus Carter.
Swizek finished with a game-tying high in points with 28. He went 11 of 19 from the field and 6 of 12 from three-point range. Stines added 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals and Carter had seven points and two steals for IVC. Sophomore guard David Ogunlade added seven assists for the Lasers.
San Bernardino Valley was led by Jason Lee with 28 points and nine rebounds and Chine Nwanevu with 14 points and nine rebounds.
Irvine Valley trailed, 17-5, at the 12:49 mark in the first half after a three-pointer by Lee.
But the Lasers tied the game at 22-22 with 2:16 left in the first half after a layup by freshman forward Josiah Reed.
And IVC was down just 26-25 at the half.
Irvine Valley took a 34-32 lead on a three-pointer by Swizek with 16:00 left in the game.
It was back and forth from there. There were eight lead changes in the second half.
Irvine Valley was up, 53-44, in the second half on a layup by Stines with 5:07 left in regulation.
San Bernardino rallied with an 11-0 run and took a 55-53 advantage on a three-pointer by Isaiah Espinoza with 2:09 to play.
Swizek made a jumper to pull IVC even at 55 with 50 seconds left.
Reed missed a jumper as the buzzer sounded and the teams headed to extra time.
San Bernardino Valley scored the first five points of overtime on a basket by Lee and then a three-pointer by Nwanevu and never looked back.
Irvine Valley out-shot San Bernardino Valley, 39.0 percent to 37.3 percent as a team and made two more three-pointers, but the Wolverines made 16 of 18 free throws to Irvine Valley's 6 of 6.
