The Irvine Valley men's basketball team moved its record to 2-0 with a hard-fought, 77-72, win over College of the Canyons in an opening game of the Irvine Valley Classic on Thursday.
Irvine Valley plays Ventura at 6 p.m. in the title game on Friday evening.
Freshman guard Allen Moser led IVC with 17 point and seven assists. Sophomore guard Ammon Allan added 14 points and four rebounds, freshman forward Matt Mowers had a big game with 12 points, 12 rebounds and three assists for the Lasers.
And freshman guard Yanis Aldeguer chipped in 10 points for IVC.
Justin Perez paced Canyons with 19 points and four rebounds and Raz Orbach contributed 18 points.
The teams were tied at 39 at the half. IVC out-scored the Cougars, 38-33, in the second half and the Lasers performed well down the stretch.
Irvine Valley trailed, 61-60, with 6:31 left in the contest after two free throws by Perez.
But Irvine Valley outscored Canyons, 17-11, the rest of the way. The Lasers took the lead for good at 62-61 after two free throws by sophomore forward Ethan Tauber.
A big three-pointer by freshman guard Jackson Jennings put Irvine Valley ahead, 65-61, with 5:36 remaining.
Canyons pulled within 65-63, but Jennings made a layup off an assist from Mowers to make it a 67-63 game.
Orbach nailed a three-pointer to get the Cougars within a point with 3:57 left.
Allan made a layup and then Moser put the game away with a three-pointer with 2:36 to go to give Irvine Valley a 72-66 lead.
Canyons didn't go away and 74-72 game on a layp by Gianmarco Figueroa. But Irvine Valley made its free throws down the stretch with Moser making one and Aldeguer sinking two in the final seconds.
Irvine Valley shot 51.0 percent (26 of 51) from the field as a team for the game and held Canyons to 39.7 percent from the field.
The Lasers also out-rebounded Canyons, 42-31.
