It looked from the start that the Irvine Valley women's basketball team was going to have its hands full with MiraCosta in the second round of the California Community College Athletic Association Regional Playoffs Friday night at home.
The Lasers, seeded sixth, were taking on a No. 11 Spartans squad that had 20 wins and captured the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference title.
MiraCosta scored the first six points of Friday's tilt and the contest was tied at 24 midway through the second quarter.
But Irvine Valley blitzed MiraCosta from there on out and ran away with a 94-48 victory to move on to the third round next week.
Tied, 24-24, with 5:38 left in the second quarter after McKena Stoeff made a layup, the Lasers out-scored the Spartans, 13-3, the rest of the half.
Irvine Valley took a 37-27 lead into the break and then put up 33 points in the third quarter alone. IVC shot 57.1 percent (12 of 21) in the third quarter.
The Lasers were up, 70-35, at the end of the third period and led by as many as 46 points in the fourth quarter.
IVC out-scored MiraCosta, 57-21, all together in the second half, and, 70-24, over the final 25:38.
Meanwhile, MiraCosta shot just 21.2 percent (7 of 33) in the second half and only 25.0 percent (18 of 72) for the game.
Irvine Valley got big performances all around. Sophomore guard Anai Washington finished 23 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and four steals, freshman guard Jessica Suruor added 18 points and sophomore center Zoe Stachowski hustled all over for 16 points, 20 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Ten Lasers in all scored in the game. IVC also got nine points and three assists off the bench from sophomore guard Emma Vasquez, eight points from sophomore guard Kelli Murakami-Hanashiro and six points, four rebounds and two blocks from freshman forward Helen Reynolds and six assists and seven rebounds from freshman guard Katie Nguyen.
MiraCosta (20-6) was led by Julia Iman with 15 points, six assists and three steals and Chynna Cochran with 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
IVC, champion of the Orange Empire Conference, improved its record to 25-2 overall and will play the winner of Saturday night's Allan Hancock at Ventura match-up in the third round next week.
