After easy wins in its first two games to start the season, Irvine Valley's women's basketball team had trouble against Citrus on the road Friday night.
The Lasers didn't shoot the ball well (28.4 percent from the field) and couldn't take advantage of 30 Citrus turnovers in a 59-58 loss.
Irvine Valley also made just 3 of 23 three-pointers (13.0 percent) and 9 of 19 free throws (47.4 percent) in the contest.
IVC was down, 29-20, at the half, but came out fired up in the third quarter and tied the game 41-41 heading into the final period.
With just under five minutes to go, Irvine Valley took a 51-50 lead, but Citrus scored six straight points to go up, 56-51.
Things got interesting with just 15 seconds on the clock as IVC pulled within one and forced a Citrus turnover to get the ball back.
The Lasers missed a three-point attempt, but grabbed the rebound.
Once again IVC missed its chance to take the lead as the ball went out for a Citrus rebound and hand the home team the 59-58 victory.
Sophomore guard Paola Roa paced the Lasers with 14 points and seven rebounds.
Sophomore guard Jessica Suruor added 11 points, freshman guard Aliya Richmond finished with nine points and sophomore guard Morgan Higgins had seven points, nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals for the Lasers.
Katherine Goostrey posted 22 points and eight assists, while Giselle Garcia-Nunez scored 20 points and snagged 12 rebounds for Citrus, which improved its record to 3-1 overall.
The Lasers (2-1) play again next Wednesday, hosting Rio Hondo at 5 p.m.
