Women's basketball team wins second straight, downs Riverside

Courtesy of Toni Lavacot
Courtesy of Toni Lavacot

Irvine Valley's women's basketball team put on another defensive show Friday night.

After holding Saddleback to just 32 points in a win on Wednesday, the Lasers limited Riverside to 35 points in a convincing 58-35 Orange Empire Conference victory at home.

It was the third time in conference that Irvine Valley has held an opponent to 35 points or fewer and fifth time overall this season.

Irvine Valley improved its record to 15-6 overall and 3-2 in conference play.

Riverside's record dropped to 13-9 overall and 3-3 in conference.

Riverside scored the first basket of the game, but the Lasers then got back-to-back three pointers by sophomore guard Tara Casey and never looked back.

They were up, 11-6, after the first quarter and, 26-13, at halftime. Casey hit three three-pointers and had nine points in the opening 20 minutes to lead IVC.

For the game, freshman forward Kasey Smit ended with 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Lasers.

Casey added 14 points and five rebounds, sophomore forward Morgan Bryant added seven points and seven rebounds and sophomore guard Jordan Coleman ended with six points, seven assists and six steals in a 35 minutes of action.

The Lasers shot 39.3 percent (24 of 61) from the field in the game, had 16 assists and turned the ball over just 13 times.

Riverside shot just 25.5 percent (13 of 51) and had 22 turnovers.

The Tigers got nine points from Jordan Lofton and seven points from Brittney Gonzalez in the defeat.

Irvine Valley plays again next Wednesday, hosting Santa Ana at 7 p.m.