The Irvine Valley women's basketball team dropped its 2024-25 opener to a tough Palomar squad, 66-56, on Friday night at home.
The contest finished off a busy day at IVC after women's soccer and women's volleyball home games earlier.
The women's basketball game featured two of the top teams in Southern Caifornia with Palomar coming in as the No. 8 team in the first CCCWBCA ranking of the season. Irvine Valley was ranked No. 16.
Irvine Valley jumped out to a 15-13 lead after the first quarter, but the Comets took control of the game in the second quarter.
Palomar out-scored Irvine Valley, 23-15, in the second quarter to take a 36-30 lead into the half and then Palomar limited IVC to 10 points in the third quarter to go up, 50-40, heading into the final period.
Palomar had three players score in double figures, led by Kylee Trujillo with 14 points and four rebounds. Teanna Alaman added 13 points and four assists and Angelina De Leon had 12 points, three rebounds and one steal.
Neveah Mageo chipped in six points, four rebounds and three rebounds for the Comets.
The Lasers were led by freshman guard Samantha Barnett, sophomore guard Haruka Mikuma and freshman forward Neryah Lokeni with 11 points each.
Barnett also had seven rebounds, three assists and three steals, Mikuma added five rebounds, two assists and three steals and Lokeni had four rebounds.
Sophomore guard Moka Saiki and freshman guard/forward Alexis Price each had nine points apiece with Saiki also finishing with four steals.
The Lasers were hurt by turnovers. IVC ended with 31 turnovers.
The two teams combined for 54 turnovers in the game.
Irvine Valley plays again next Thursday in the three-day West Los Angeles Tournament. IVC opens against Ventura on Thursday at 2:30 p.m.
