Irvine Valley Can’t Find the Way to Beat San Jose

The first thing mentioned about Irvine Valley most of this season was that the Lasers had only eight players but each played hard.

It came up again and again as Irvine Valley won a school-record 17 games in a row and the Orange Empire Conference title.

The Lasers again played hard Thursday but showed fatigue down the stretch and fell to San Jose, 75-67, in the first round of the community college women’s basketball state tournament at Concordia.

San Jose, the defending state champions, used a 10-person rotation and had only two players on the court for more than 30 minutes. Four of Irvine Valley’s five starters played 34 or more minutes, including point guard Phouangmaly Pravongviengkham, who never went to the bench.

“I couldn’t ask more from my team,” said Irvine Valley Coach Julie Hanks, who completed her first season with a 27-6 record. “They worked as hard as they could for 40 minutes. Everyone of their jerseys is covered in sweat.”

None more than Pravongviengkham, who missed her season-high in points by one with 23. The sophomore guard was the conference’s most valuable player.

“We were really pumped up and we really wanted to win,” Pravongviengkham said. “It was really tough, we got a little tired at the end. But we didn’t think about it at all, we just went out and played our best.”

Irvine Valley was down by as many 10 (30-20) in the first half and trailed at the break, 37-34.

But the Lasers attacked San Jose’s pressure to start the second half and had the Jaguars on their heels for a time.

Irvine Valley led four times early in the second half and was tied three other times. The final tie was at 62-62 after a basket by Pravongviengkham with 5 minutes 14 seconds left.

The guard could have tied it again at 65 a minute later by making two free throws but missed the front end of a one-and-one.

The Lasers got within 67-65 when freshman center Lauren O’Hara made a short jumper, but San Jose sophomore forward Kristie Reed scored a basket, then had a three-point play on San Jose’s next two possessions for a 71-65 lead.

Irvine Valley’s last basket came from Jennifer O’Keefe with a minute left to get the Lasers within four (71-67), but San Jose’s Cortney Keegan made a three-pointer, was fouled and made the free throw with 40 seconds left for a 75-67 lead.