Women's basketball team set to host East LA in CCCAA Playoffs

Women's basketball team set to host East LA in CCCAA Playoffs

Irvine Valley's women's basketball team earned the No. 7 seed in the CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoffs and will host No. 10 East Los Angeles on Friday night at 7 p.m. in a second-round game.

Both teams earned a bye in the opening round.

Irvine Valley has a record of 24-4 overall and went 13-1 in the Orange Empire Conference to share the title with Cypress.

East LA is has a record of 18-10 overall and went 6-4 in the tough South Coast Conference North Division for third place.

Four teams from the North Division of the SCC made the playoffs.

East LA finished the regular season winning two of its final three games.

The team defeated Chaffey last Friday at home, 68-56. The Huskies out-scored Chaffey, 20-11, in the final quarter to pull away.

Monica Garcia had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Jaelynn Curley finished with 17 points, Dominique Godbolt had 12 points and 14 rebounds and Stevi Hall chipped in 11 points and seven rebounds off the bench for East LA.

Irvine Valley was ranked No. 10 in the final CCCSIA state poll of the regular season.

IVC won at Riverside, 82-79, in overtime last Thursday to earn a part of the OEC title.

Sophomore forward Kasey Smit finished with an incredible 39 points and 23 rebounds in the win. She was 16 of 28 from the field and 4 of 7 from three-point range.

With the 23 rebounds, Smit moved into first place in IVC program history with 366 rebounds in a season.

She goes into the playoffs with 523 points in 2017-18, which ranks third in IVC history.

Sophomore guard Elizabeth Garcia chipped in 15 points and freshman guard Lexi Vail had 11 points for Irvine Valley.

Smit was named MVP of the conference with Garcia being named first team all-OEC and Vail and sophomore forward Kiara Warren each being picked second team.

On the season, Smit averages 18.7 points, 13.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.1 steals and 2.1 blocks per game. Garcia is averaging 10.6 points, 3.7 assists and 1.7 steals, Vail averages 10.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists, Warren is averaging 10.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.7 steals and freshman guard Cydnie Danan averages 9.4 points and 3.6 assists for IVC. 

Against common opponents both teams went 5-2. ELAC averages 76.0 points per game, while Irvine Valley averages 76.3.

ELAC, which has been to the state tournament the last three years, averages 47.2 rebounds per game, while Irvine Valley averages 47.4.