Irvine Valley's men's basketball team had its chances Thursday night to pick up a big, early-season win.
The Lasers led Ventura by six points at the half and held a two-point lead with just over three minutes to play, but ended up falling, 62-57, to the Pirates.
Irvine Valley (1-1) will turn around and face Cerritos at 4 p.m. in a consolation on Friday.
Ventura (4-0) will face Cerritos (3-0) in the championship game at 6 p.m.
The Lasers hurt themselves at the free throw line on Thursday. IVC went just 15 of 30 from the charity stripe.
IVC was also 2 of 16 from three-point range.
Sophomore guard Luc Krystkowiak led Irvine Valley with 17 points, six rebounds and two blocks and sophomore forward Josh Walker added 13 points and seven rebounds.
Freshman foward Charlie Henderson and sophomore guard Aaron Strings each contributed six points. Henderson also had seven rebounds.
Ventura was paced by Adrian McIntyre with 24 points and Anthony McIntyre with 19 points and six rebounds. Anthony Garza chipped in nine points and Caleb Geisendorfer had six points and nine rebounds for the Pirates.
Adrian McIntyre put Ventura up for good at 54-50 on a layup with 3:09 to play.
A free throw by McIntyre made it a 57-52 lead with 1:10 to go.
Irvine Valley made it a two-point game on a deep, three-pointer by sophomore forward Colby Waite with 48 seconds to play. But that was as close as the Lassers would get.
Friday's games will be streamed at
