Irvine Valley's men's basketball team picked up its most important win of the season so far on Friday night.
The Lasers knocked Riverside, which was ranked No. 15 in the state and sat tied atop of the Orange Empire Conference standings heading into Friday, 65-58, at home.
The win lifted Irvine Valley's record to 16-8 overall and 6-6 in conference. Riverside went to 16-9 overall and 11-2 in conference and now sits a half game behind Santiago Canyon in the race for first place in the OEC.
Irvine Valley moved up into fifth place in the conference standings.
It was the Lasers' third straight win overall.
Irvine Valley got a game-high 20 points from freshman point guard JT Robinson. He also added seven rebounds.
Sophomore forward Austin Carter chipped in nine points, nine rebounds and three steals, sophomore post player Aashad Womack contributed nine points and five rebounds and sophomore guard Christian Louis and freshman guard Aaron Strings each had eight points for IVC.
Riverside was paced by Zekiah Lovett with 13 points, Keylin Vance with 12 points and Kevin Mba with 11 points and five rebounds.
But Riverside shot just 29.8 percent (17 of 57) from the floor and 23.8 percent (5 of 21) from three-point range in the game.
Irvine Valley made its move in the second half.
The Lasers led, 25-23, at halftime.
And it was still just a four point game (38-34) for IVC after two free throws by Mba with 11:01 left to play.
But Irvine Valley went on a 7-0 run, capped by a layup by Robinson to take a 45-34 advantage with 8:28 left.
Riverside battled back and got within 49-47 on a basket by Justin Motely with 3:39 left.
But IVC responded, getting a three-point play from Carter and then a big, three-point jumper by freshman forward Colby Waite with 2:49 left to push the Laser lead back to 55-49.
The Lasers held on from there, leading by at least six points the rest of the way.
Irvine Valley is back in action next Wednesday at Orange Coast at 5 p.m.
