The Irvine Valley men's basketball team saw its chances of winning an Orange Empire Conference title take a serious hit last Friday.

The Lasers lost their second game of the week, falling to Riverside, 74-68, at home.

With the loss, the Lasers fell into second place in the conference standings with Riverside, one game behind Fullerton.

IVC's record slipped to 23-4 overall and 7-2 in conference.

"We have some work to do and we need some help if we are going to have a chance," Irvine Valley Coach Jerry Hernandez said of winning conference. "We needed to take care of business this week, but that didn't happen."

The Lasers, who were ranked second in the state, led the No. 10 Tigers, 33-26, at halftime and looked to be in control. IVC held Riverside to just nine field goals (37.5 percent shooting) in the first half.

Irvine Valley held a 43-35 lead after a free throw by Bryce Webster with 13:49 left in the game.

But Riverside started chipping away.

A 10-0 run, capped by a basket by Keiran Nunley, put the Tigers ahead, 45-43, with 10:38 to play.

The Lasers scored eight in a row of their own, six of them coming on consecutive three-pointers by freshman guard Jeff Ledbetter, to go up, 51-45.

It was close the rest of the way.

IVC held a 62-57 lead with 3:05 left on two free throws by freshman point guard Perry Webster. But Riverside scored seven points in a row to take the lead for good.

Two free throws by Nunley with 1:02 to play broke a 62-62 tie.

Riversdie went up, 66-62, on two more free throws by Anthony Scott.

IVC didn't get closer than three points the rest of the way.

Riverside was impressive at the line in the game. The Tigers made 86.1percent of their free throws overall (31 of 36), including 24 of 26 attempts (92.3 percent) in the second half.

Meanwhile, Irvine Valley hurt itself at the line, making only 15 of 28 free throws (53.6 percent).

Anthony Dandy led Riverside with 21 points. Charles Garcia added 14 points and five rebounds before fouling out late in the game.

IVC was led by Blake Wallace with 13 points (10 points in the first half) and nine rebounds. Ledbetter added 11 points for the Lasers.

"This also hurts because it will drop us in the rankings," Hernandez said. "We were hoping to get one of the top four seeds in the South and get a bye (in the first round of the playoffs). Now we have to hope for a top-eight seed so at least we can get a home game in the first round."

Riverside had a big game with Fullerton on Wednesday. A win by Riverside and there could be a three-way tie for first place in conference.