Irvine Valley's men's basketball team opened the Orange Empire Conference part of its schedule with a convincing victory.
The Lasers, who are ranked No. 13 in the state, scored the first 26 points of the game and went on to beat Cypress, 84-51, at home on Wednesday night.
The win improved Irvine Valley's record to 16-1, while Cypress fell to 5-11.
The 16-1 mark is the best ever start in program history through 17 games.
Sophomore center Declan Daly and sophomore guard Dathon Spencer led the team with 13 points each.
Daly also had nine rebounds. Spencer was 5 of 6 from the field, including 1 of 1 from three-point range and 2 of 2 from the free throw line.
Sophomore guard Shaquille Hunter chipped in 12 points, freshman forward Chris Porter had 11 points and four rebounds and freshman guard Jimmy Golden contributed nine points.
In all, 13 Lasers scored in the contest.
Irvine Valley shot 48.5 percent (32 of 66) from the field for the game and limited Cypress to just 34.7 percent (17 of 49).
The big key was the way IVC controlled Cypress sophomore guard David Gonzalez. Gonzalez entered the game second in the conference and ninth in the state in scoring at 21.8 points per game. He had recently scored 50 points in a game. Gonzalez also led the state in three-pointers made with 71.
On Wednesday night, with a combination of Hunter, Golden and Spencer hounding Gonzalez, he went 3 of 14 from the field, including 2 of 9 from three-point range. He finished with eight points.
Cypress was led by Mark Townes, who had 20 points.
Irvine Valley broke open the game early, scoring the first 26 points. Cypress didn't get on the board until there was 9:41 left in the first half.
The Lasers led, 44-19, at halftime and cruised in the second half.
Irvine Valley plays again on Friday at home, hosting Orange Coast at 5:30 p.m.
