Irvine Valley's women's basketball team won its fourth straight game and started Orange Empire Conference play with a bang Wednesday night.
The Lasers, who are the defending conference champion, routed Fullerton, 74-32, at home.
The 42-point margin of victory in the game was the second largest for Irvine Valley this season. The Lasers defeated Cuesta by 53 points in a tournament game at Saddleback in November.
IVC, which was coming off winning the Foothill Tournament last week and had moved up seven spots in the state rankings this week to No. 12, led by 17 points at the half and then out-scored Fullerton, 40-15, in the second half to put the game away.
Irvine Valley was up, 15-8, at the end of the first quarter, 34-17, at halftime and then jumped on Fullerton in the third quarter, out-scoring the Hornets, 26-3, to go ahead, 60-20.
Irvine Valley shot 63.2 percent (12 of 19) in the third quarter and made 2 of 3 three-pointers. Sophomore guard Jordan Coleman took over on both ends of the floor, scoring nine points and recording five steals and three assists in the quarter.
The Lasers took their largest lead at 61-27 on a three-pointer by sophomore point guard Erika Mercado with 6:50 left in the game.
Overall, Irvine Valley shot 45.6 percent (31 of 68) from the field for the game, while Fullerton managed only 22.0 percent (13 of 59).
Irvine Valley also out-rebounded Fullerton, 57-33.
The Lasers shared the ball nicely with 24 assists on their 31 made baskets. The Lasers also had 13 steals.
Freshman forward Kydell Pearson, coming off an all-tournament nod last week at Foothill, paced IVC with 14 points and eight rebounds. She was one of four players in double figures for the Lasers.
Coleman had 11 points, five assists and five steals in just 21 minutes of work.
Sophomore forward Morgan Bryant had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Mercado contributed 10 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals.
Freshman forward Kasey Smit chipped in eight points and seven rebounds for IVC.
Fullerton (4-7, 0-1) got seven points and five rebounds from Monica Hana, five points from Melissa Madrigal and seven rebounds from Jackelyn Ramirez in the defeat.
Irvine Valley, which improved its record to 13-4 overall plays at Cypress in a key conference game on Friday night at 7 p.m.
