Plenty of honorees for women's basketball team in OEC awards

It was no surprise that the Irvine Valley women's basketball team came away with the bulk of the honors when it came time for all-Orange Empire Conference awards.

The Lasers won their fourth straight OEC title, finished the regular season 23-2 overall and went 12-0 in conference. By the way, IVC out-scored conference opponents by almost 40 points (90.0-50.3) this season.

Irvine Valley was ranked as high as No. 1 in So. Cal. in the last coaches poll. And the Lasers received the No. 2 seed in the So. Cal. regional playoffs. They begin the postseason on Thursday at home at 7 p.m. against Cerritos.

At the OEC coaches meeting this past weekend, Irvine Valley earned six all-conference nominations highlighted by sophomore guard Morgan Higgins being named the unanimous Most Valuable Player (MVP).

Julie Hanks also earned Coach of the Year.

Higgins, along with her MVP nod, was named the Offensive Player of the Year after she led the league with 20.1 points-per-game and a 56.6 shooting percentage. Higgins also averaged 4.1 assists and 3.5 steals in the OEC.

She was seventh in the conference with 201 total points and recorded 10 double-digit scoring games.

Hanks earned her second-consecutive Coach of the Year honor after leading her squad to their fourth-consecutive conference title. Her team went a flawless 12-0 in conference play and won each game by 14 or more points.

Riverside's Mya Clark was named the Defensive Player of the Year after dominating the boards all year.

She averaged 13.4 rebounds-per-game and 1.3 steals-per-game. She recorded 10 or more rebounds in all but three conference contests highlighted by a 26-point rebounds game in a win over Santa Ana. Furthermore, she ended the season by recording 10 or more rebounds in seven of the last eight games and recorded 17 steals in the last eight games.

Several other Laser players were honored. Freshman forward Sarah Matossian and sophomore guards Paola Roa and Jessica Suruor were each named to the first team.

Matossian averaged 17.1 points and 12.1 rebounds, while shooting 56.4 percent from the field in conference, Roa finished the regular season at 17.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.8 steals in conference and Suruor averaged 15.1 points and shot a team-high 38.8 percent from three-point range.

Sophomore guard Katie Nguyen and freshman forward Paea Tafea were each selected second team all-conference for IVC.

Click here for even more pictures of Irvine Valley's all-OEC players