After being down big early on, the Irvine Valley men's basketball team played No. 11 in the state Fullerton tough for the rest of the way.
Fullerton still pulled out a 63-51 Orange Empire Conference win to move to 18-2 overall and 7-1 in conference.
Irvine Valley slipped to 11-10 overall and 3-5 in the OEC.
Fullerton led, 7-0, right off the bat and was ahead, 12-3, after a Jaqari Miles jumper with 14:28 left in the first half.
The Hornets led, 21-9, with 9:23 to play after a dunk by Brayden Smith.
But Irvine Valley clawed its way back and used a 8-0 run over the final 5:13 of the half to make it a 27-26 at the break.
Sophomore forward Josiah Reed had four of those points and sophomore guard Ammon Allan and freshman wing Yanis Aldeguer each added two points during the stretch.
Fullerton took a 42-34 advantage with 11:27 to play after two free throws by Justin Davis.
Irvine Valley then scored the next six points and got within two points (42-40) on a corner three-pointer by freshman guard Miguel Llamas with 10:36 left.
But that is as close as the Lasers would get.
Fullerton out-scored Irvine Valley, 21-11, the rest of the way.
The Hornets led by as many as 14 points before winning by 11.
A big difference in the game was free throws. Fullerton went 18 of 22 from the line, while IVC was 4 of 13.
Reed led Irvine Valley with 15 points and five rebounds and Aldeguer added 10 points.
Fullerton was paced by Joe Grahovic with 14 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and three blocks. David contributed 12 points, five rebounds and five assists and Miles had 12 points.
Irvine Valley plays again on Friday, hosting Cypress at 7 p.m. as a part of a doubleheader with the IVC women's team.