Irvine Valley's men's basketball team rallied late, but it wasn't enough in a 53-46 loss to Santa Monica College in the second round of the California Community College Athletic Association Playoffs at West LA College.
The Lasers, seeded No. 20, saw their season come to a close with a record of 17-13 overall.
The fourth-seeded Corsairs (21-8) move on to the third round of action next week.
Irvine Valley got behind early. The Lasers trailed, 31-15, at the half.
IVC battled in the second half, out-scoring Santa Monica by nine points, but the first-half deficit was too much to overcome.
The Lasers were led by sophomore guard Christian Louis and sophomore forward Austin Carter with 10 points each. Carter also added six rebounds.
Freshman guard Aaron Strings contributed nine points and five rebounds for IVC in the defeat.
Irvine Valley made 13 three-pointers in its opening round upset win over Chaffey on Wednesday, but the Lasers were just 4 of 16 (25.0 percent) from beyond the arc against Santa Monica.
And IVC shot 38.6 percent (17 of 44) overall from the field in the game Saturday night.
The Lasers were also out-rebounded, 38-26, by the Corsairs.
Santa Monica got 16 points and nine rebounds from Elias King and 13 points from Teddy Parham in the victory.
