Irvine Valley's men's basketball team won its fifth game in its last six contests and opened the Orange Empire Conference schedule with a tight, 59-57 win over Cypress on Wednesday night at home.
The Lasers improved their record to 11-4 overall, while the Chargers moved to 9-6 overall.
IVC led most of the night and was up by as many as 11 points with 6:33 left in the contest, 54-43, on a layup by sophomore guard Yanis Aldeguer.
But Cypress charged back down the stretch.
The Chargers went on a 12-0 run capped by a three-pointer by Zack Moritz with 3:40 to play to take a 55-54 advantage.
It was back and forth from there with three more lead changes.
The last one went the Lasers' way with freshman point guard Santos Cordero converting a layup to put IVC ahead, 58-57, with 19 seconds left.
Cypress then missed a three-pointer and Irvine Valley freshman wing Ahmad Alhammouri grabbing the rebound and getting fouled.
He made one of two free throws to make it a two-point game with four seconds left.
Michael Wright threw up a long three-pointer for the Chargers at the buzzer, but it was off line.
The team stats were pretty even between the two teams and coaches that know each other well.
The biggest difference was Irvine Valley scored 24 points off 15 Cypress turnovers and the Chargers finished with 10 points off of turnovers.
IVC's bench also out-scored Cypress, 21-10.
Irvine Valley was led by Alhammouri with 13 points, six rebounds, one steal and one block.
Aldeguer also ended with 13 points and added three assists and one steal.
Cordero fiinished with nine points.
Cypress was paced by Moritz with 21 points, five rebounds and five assists and Jack Rivera had 17 points, five rebounds and two steals.
IVC next plays at district rival Saddleback on Friday at 5 p.m.
