Irvine Valley's men's basketball team made it a game in the second half, but a slow start to Friday night's contest cost the Lasers in a 56-45 Orange Empire Conference loss at home to Saddleback.
The Lasers scored just two points in the first 8:47 of the game and trailed by 11 points.
Irvine Valley was down, 31-17, at the half before rallying in the final 20 minutes.
IVC tied the game at 33 on a layup by freshman wing Marcus Carter with 12:13 left in the game, but Saddleback scored the next five points to take the lead for good.
Irvine Valley got within two points (38-36) on a three-pointer by freshman guard David Ogunlade with 9:11 to play. But that was as close as IVC would get the rest of the night.
A three-pointer by Nick Bowden put Saddleback ahead, 41-36, and the Bobcats pushed their lead back into double digits at 49-38 with 3:38 to play on a three-pointer by James Burries.
Irvine Valley ended up shooting 34.0 percent (17 of 50) as a team in the game, but just 23.1 percent (6 of 26) in the first half.
Ogunlade led Irvine Valley with 17 points. He made 6 of 11 shots fomr the field.
Carter added 14 points and sophomore post player Charlie Henderson ended with 11 rebounds.
Irvine Valley's record slipped to 4-18 overall and 0-10 in conference play.
Saddleback won its fourth game in a row and went to 15-8 overall and 7-4 in conference.
Saddleback finished with four players in double figures for the night. Burries had 15 points, while Bowden ended with 13 points and Torrance Farr and Elijah Al-Debaran each had 11 points.
Irvine Valley is back in action next Wednesday, traveling to Riverside for a 5 p.m. conference game.
