Irvine Valley's women's basketball team snapped a Cypress win streak, and even more importantly took control of the Orange Empire Conference standings on Wednesday night.
The Lasers won at Cypress, 74-68, in a battle for first place in the conference at Cypress.
Cypress was riding a 20-game conference win streak heading into Wednesday night's action.
IVC picked up the win behind another stellar game from sophomore forward Kasey Smit. She scored a career-high 34 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.
Smit shot 14 of 18 from the field in 37 minutes.
She is now averaging 23.8 points, 13.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.2 blocks in IVC's five conference games.
Freshman guard Lexi Vail added 11 points, four rebounds and three steals and sophomore forward Kiara Warren had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Lasers.
Irvine Valley, ranked No. 9 in the state and fourth in Southern California, improved its record to 16-3 overall and 5-0 in conference.
Cypress, ranked No. 13 in So. Cal., fell to 12-7 overall and 4-1 in conference.
The Chargers were paced by Vivian Lara, who had a career-high 31 points.
Smit had 12 points in the first quarter to lead Irvine Valley to a 21-16 lead.
The Lasers struggled from the field in the second quarter with only six points and were down, 28-27, at the half.
But IVC battled back in the third quarter and took a 46-42 advantage into the final period.
And then Irvine Valley went on a 15-4 run to open the fourth quarter. The Lasers were up, 62-46, with five minutes remaining and held on from there.
Irvine Valley will look to stay undefeated in conference on Friday when it plays at Orange Coast at 7 p.m.
