Irvine Valley prevails over Pirates
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Irvine Valley (11-8, 3-3) | 26 | 38 | 64 |
|
Orange Coast (4-15, 0-6) | 21 | 31 | 52 |
COSTA MESA -- The Orange Coast College men's basketball team had trouble finding points as Irvine Valley came into the Peterson Gym and posted a 64-52 Orange Empire Conference win over the host Pirates on Wednesday night.
Coast struggled from the floor, shooting just 28% (16-of-57) and just 26.5% from 3-point range (9-of-34). The Pirate defense forced 16 IVC turnovers and held the Lasers to just 48 total shots, but the guests hit on 25 of them for 52.1%.
Sawyer Clemett led OCC with 12 points and nine rebounds, while a pair of Pirates -- Ronnie Davis and Chris Obiajulu -- each added eight points. For the Lasers, Matt Mowers, Ammon Allan and Allen Moser each had 13 points.
It looked good early on for the Pirates as they jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the opening five minutes of play. IVC missed its first four shots and committed six turnovers over that span as they tried to break the helter-skelter OCC defense.
The Pirate offense ran dry over the final 15 minutes of the first half as the Lasers scored 26 of the final 37 points of the opening 20 minutes to carry a 26-21 advantage into the locker room.
Irvine Valley came out fast in the opening minutes and pushed the lead up to 11 at 32-21. The deficit grew to 13 before OCC found some success and trimmed the margin down to six at 39-33 with just under 13 minutes remaining in the game.
But, unfortunately for the Pirates, that would be as close as they would get as the Lasers kept OCC in their rear-view mirror for the remainder of the second half.
Coast will return to the Peterson Gym on Friday against Santa Ana College, beginning at 7 p.m.
