Irvine Valley's men's basketball team continued its solid play as it closes out the regular season.
The Lasers earned a 73-62 Orange Empire Conference win over Santa Ana at home Wednesday night.
With the victory and a loss by Orange Coast at Saddleback, IVC locked up second place in the conference with one game left in the regular season.
Irvine Valley, which improved its record to 15-11 overall and 8-3 in conference, closes out the regular season on Friday at Fullerton at 5 p.m.
Playoff brackets are scheduled to be released next Monday afternoon.
Irvine Valley has won three games in a row and five of its last six contests.
The Lasers have shot better than 50 percent from the field in the three straight wins.
They shot 57.1 percent in a 67-59 victory at Riverside, 56.4 percent in a 70-54 home win against Cypress and then 52.7 percent in the triumph over Santa Ana on Wednesday.
Irvine Valley made 29 of 55 shots from the field, 9 of 19 three-pointers (47.4 percent) and ended with 22 assists on its 29 made baskets in the win over Santa Ana.
The game was tied, 20-20, after Santa Ana's Chris Kapano made a jumper with 10:24 left in the first half, but Irvine Valley out-scored the Dons, 18-8, to close out the half.
Irvine Valley went ahead, 38-24, on a layup by sophomore forward Chris Porter before Santa Ana scored the final four points of the half.
IVC led, 38-28, at halftime.
The Lasers scored the first five points of the second half, getting a dunk by sophomore center Andrew Bastien and then a three-pointer by sophomore guard Chris Salas to push their lead to 43-28.
It was IVC's largest advantage of the game.
Santa Ana didn't get closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Porter had his best game of the season for IVC, finishing with 20 points, seven rebounds, three assists and four blocked shots . Salas chipped in 18 points and five assists in a team-high 36 minutes.
And Bastien also had a big night with 12 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks and two steals.
Sophomore guard Jimmy Golden added nine points, sophomore forward Craig Magyar ended with six points and sophomore point guard Jalen Hall had six assists for Irvine Valley.
Another important stat for IVC was that it had just eight turnovers in the contest.
Santa Ana was paced by Du'Juan Williams, who finished with 14 points and six assists and Ausjai Fusick, who had 11 points. De'Jon Frazier added eight points and nine rebounds for the Dons, who saw their record fall to 13-13 overall and 5-6 in conference.
