The Irvine Valley men's basketball team found its outside shooting touch at the right time on Friday night at home against Riverside.
Sophomore guard Jimmy Golden sank four big three-pointers and sophomore guard Chris Salas added another three in the second half to help Irvine Valley defeat the Tigers, 65-61, in an Orange Empire Conference game.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 9-9 overall and 2-1 in conference. Riverside fell to 7-12 overall and 2-2 in conference.
Irvine Valley led what was a back and forth game, 42-40, with 11:20 left in the contest when Golden sank a three-pointer to put IVC up by five points.
The three was part of an 8-0 run which helped IVC break away.
Salas added a layup and then freshman forward Craig Magyar converted a three-point play to give Irvine Valley a 50-40 lead with 9:51 left.
Jelani Mitchell's three-pointer cut it to 52-46, but then Golden made a three-pointer to put IVC ahead, 55-46, with 7:12 left.
Another three-pointer by Golden made it 58-48 with 5:39 to go. He sank one more three-pointer less than a minute later to give Irvine Valley its largest lead of the night at 61-48.
After Mitchell made a three-pointer with 2:47 to go to get the Tigers within 61-54, Salas knocked down a three-pointer to give IVC a 64-54 advantage with 2:19 to play.
Riverside didn't get closer than four points the rest of the way.
Golden finished with 15 points, gong 5 of 8 from the field, including 4 of 5 from three-pointer range. He added four rebounds.
Salas finished with nine points, sophomore guard Jalen Hall had eight points and four assists, freshman guard Jacob Short ended with seven points and sophomore center Andrew Bastien had six points to go along with nine rebounds.
Riverside was paced by Mitchell's 22 points, five assists and two steals. Will Taylor added 16 points and Taj Adams had eight points and six rebounds.
Both teams hurt themselves at the free throw line. Riverside was just 11 of 27 from the charity stripe, while Irvine Valley went 9 of 17.
Riverside shot 55.0 percent (22 of 40) from the field in the contest, while IVC shot 45.3 percent (24 of 53).
Irvine Valley plays again next Wednesday at Cypress, which was a winner over Santa Ana on Friday night.
