Irvine Valley's men's basketball team earned its most important victory so far of the 2013-14 season, winning at rival Saddleback on Wednesday night.
The Lasers pulled out a dramatic 64-63 win.
The game was a battle between two of the best teams in the state with Saddleback ranked seventh and Irvine Valley 12th.
The Lasers rallied furiously in the final minutes of regulation to tie the game and then won dramatically at the end of overtime.
IVC Coach Jerry Hernandez was pleased with the win when looking back at it a day later. Yet he was already focused on getting his team ready for a conference game at Santa Ana on Friday night.
"It is a big win in a lot of respects and it is great to beat your rival, but in the long run we still have a lot more games," Hernandez said. "In the big scheme of things, it just give us a little better opportunity this year. We still have to play at Santa Ana on Friday night and that will be a tough game. You can't get too excited."
Hernandez did take several things away from the win on Wednesday, however. Most of all, it was how his team battled all the way to the end.
"I was pleased that we weathered the storm through the first half," Hernandez said.
Irvine Valley scored just four field goals and was down, 26-13, at halftime.
"We faced a lot of ball pressure and struggled to get anything going," Hernandez said. "Saddleback was well prepared and we had a hard time getting any good shot attempts. At the same time, they only scored 26 points (in the first half). I felt we were still in it.
"We had to make our adjustments at halftime and we got started right away in the second half. We scored on our first three possessions of the second half and that helped us get some confidence."
Still, Irvine Valley trailed by seven points with just 59 seconds remaining in regulation.
"(Assistant coaches) Jason (Garey) and Drew (Alhadeff) made a good call getting us into a scramble (defense)," Hernandez said. "We decided to go small and made some plays and tied the game. I thought we made our breaks. We didn't hang our head down and we kept battling."
Freshman guard/forward Jimmy Golden and sophomore guard Shaquille Hunter scored the team's final seven points in regulation.
Golden hit a three-pointer and made two free throws and Hunter made four free throws including two with 23 seconds left to tie the score at 57-57.
And then, with Irvine Valley trailing, 63-61, in overtime Hunter made the winning three-pointer with 1.5 seconds to play.
"Shaq is a seasoned player that can hit a big shot," Hernandez said. "Jimmy (Golden) created that shot. We couldn't get the ball inbounds to (point guard) Jalen Hall. He was being denied. So Jimmy got the ball and was smart enough to catch it and then punch it (toward the lane). They helped just enough off of Shaq and Jimmy got the ball to him in the left corner.
"We were sitting on the bench and saw it happen. I saw the height of the ball and thought it was in.
"It was a just big-time shot."
