Irvine Valley's men's basketball team is playing its best basketball of the season when it matters the most.
The Lasers won their second straight game and fourth in their last five contests, beating Cypress, 70-54, Thursday night in an Orange Empire Conference game at home.
Irvine Valley improved its record to 14-11 overall and 7-3 in conference play. The Lasers stayed in second place by themselves in the conference standings.
The Lasers have a one-game lead over Orange Coast, which defeated Santa Ana on Thursday night.
Cypress' record slipped to 10-15 overall and 3-7 in conference.
The game was a homecoming for former IVC associate head coach Drew Alhadeff, who is in his first year as the head coach at Cypress.
Alhadeff watched a number of his former Laser players shine on Thursday.
Sophomore guard Jimmy Golden scored a game-high 14 points. He made 4 of 7 shots from the field, including 3 of 5 from three-point range.
Red-shirt freshman Craig Magyar added 13 points off the bench and sophomore guard Chris Salas and sophomore forward Chris Porter each finished with 10 points. Porter also had six rebounds.
Sophomore center Andrew Bastien chipped in eight points and five rebounds and sophomore point guard Jalen Hall ended with eight points and five assists in the IVC win.
Irvine Valley shot 56.4 percent (22 of 39) from the field, including 66.7 percent (8 of 12) from three-point range. The Lasers were also 18 of 22 (81.8 percent) from the free throw line.
The Lasers led, 28-23, at halftime. Cypress scored the first two baskets of the second half, getting a three-pointer from Nolan Kelly and then a jumper from Jordan Fleck to tie it at 28-28.
But IVC scored eight points in a row to take back control. Golden drained a three-pointer, Porter made a layup and then Porter made a three-pointer to give IVC a 36-28 lead with 16:56 to play.
The Lasers stretched their lead from there.
After two Magyar free throws it was 45-33 and then a Golden three-pointer pushed IVC's advantage to 50-37 with 10:24 to play.
Cypress didn't get closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
The Chargers shot 39.6 percent (19 of 48) for the game. They were paced by Jeremy Wright, who had 12 points, and Fleck and Jerred Cook, who each finished with 11 points.
Irvine Valley plays again next Wednesday, hosting Santa Ana at 5 p.m.
It is the Lasers' final home game of the regular season.
