Irvine Valley's men's basketball team dropped its second close game of the year to Riverside on Wednesday night at home.
The Lasers, who lost at Riverside, 66-61 in early January, fell in a close game to the end, 57-53, Wednesday in an Orange Empire Conference contest.
IVC's record moved to 15-8 overall and 6-5 in the conference and Riverside went to 8-16 overall and 5-7 in conference.
Irvine Valley trailed, 28-27, at the break, but came out strong in the second half and led, 35-30, after a layup by sophomore guard Roman Swizek with 16:44 left to play.
RCC took the lead for good at 37-35 on a basket by Tomi Adesiji with 13:28 to go.
Adesiji scored again the next time down for the Tigers to make it a 39-35 game.
Riverside led by as many as six points in the secdond half, but IVC got within two (45-43) on a layup by sophomore wing Marcus Carter with 7:42 to play.
And Irvine Valey pulled to 47-46 after a layup by Swizek with 6:10 remaining.
Another basket on a jumper by Swizek with 4:21 left kept it a one-point game at 49-48.
IVC would get within one point again (52-51) on a free throw by freshman guard Ammon Allan.
But Adesiji drilled another three pointer to put Riverside ahead, 55-51, and the Lasers didn't get closer than two points the rest of the way.
Swizek paced IVC with 14 points and five rebounds and sophomore post player Jesse Stines had 11 points, eight rebounds and three blocks.
Allan added nine points and six rebounds for the Lasers.
Adejisi led Riverside with 12 points and three steals, Troy Barbarin Jr. and Joseph Barnes each had 10 points and Nicholas Flemming contributed nine points and 10 rebounds.
Irvine Valley plays again on Friday, hosting Santa Ana in a conference contest at 6 p.m.
