Irvine Valley's women's basketball team set up a showdown for the Orange Empire Conference title with a 79-51 win over Santa Ana at home on Wednesday night.
With Cypress beating Orange Coast on Wednesday, the Lasers and the Chargers are tied atop of the conference standings.
Irvine Valley hosts Cypress Friday night at 7 p.m. with an OEC championship on the line.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 21-5 overall and 11-2 in conference with the win over Santa Ana (6-20, 2-11).
Santa Ana came out hot in the first quarter, nailing four three-pointers to jump out to a 23-21 lead over Irvine Valley.
But the Lasers were in control after that. They righted the ship in the second quarter, out-scoring Santa Ana, 16-6, to take a 37-29 lead at the break.
Irvine Valley was up, 58-46, after the third quarter and held Santa Ana to just five points in the fourth quarter as it pulled away.
IVC ended up out-scoring Santa Ana, 58-28, over the final three quarters of the game.
Freshman center Zoe Stachowski led the way for the Lasers with 20 points and 15 rebounds. Freshman guard Anai Washington had 19 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals and sophomore guard Lexi Vail finished with 18 points and seven rebounds.
Freshman guard Megan Herrera added 17 points and sophomore forward Ryane Bradbury chipped in nine rebounds.
Irvine Valley out-rebounded Santa Ana, 56-38, in the contest. The Lasers out-scored Santa Ana, 20-3, on second-chance points and, 38-18, on points in the paint.
After shooting 64.3 percent in the opening quarter to take the lead, Santa Ana ended up only shooting 32.3 percent (20 of 62) from the field in the game.
The Dons were paced by Nyla Bivens, who had 16 points, seven rebounds and three blocks and Jenny Martinez, who finished with 10 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
