The Irvine Valley women's basketball team went into Wednesday night's Orange Empire Conference showdown with Cypress on a roll.
The Lasers had won three games in a row and five of their last six, including knocking off No. 15 in the state Riverside by 18 points last Friday at home.
Irvine Valley also had another upset chance, but Cypress played tough from the second quarter on and held on to defeat the Lasers, 63-57.
Irvine Valley, ranked No. 20 in the state last week, saw its record go to 15-6 overall and 3-2 in conference. Cypress, ranked No. 14 in the state, moved into second place in the conference standings
The Chargers went to 15-5 overall and 3-1 in conference.
IVC led, 20-13, after the first quarter with freshman guard Emily Freeman scoring 11 of those points.
But Cypress out-scored the Lasers, 17-7, in the second quarter to take a 30-27 lead into the break. Jaylene Oviedo nailed three three-pointers and had nine points in the period to get the Chargers back on track.
Cypress also came out strong in the third quarter and took its largest lead of the game at 10 points (46-36) on a layup by Thanh Danh with 2:04 left in the quarter.
Irvine Valley did score the final six points of the quarter, capped by a layup by freshman forward Ella Will to pull to 46-42 heading into the final period.
The Lasers got within two points on two free throws by Will with 7:02 to play. But Irvine Valley, while within two points on a number of occasions throughout the rest of the game, couldn't get any closer.
Cypress pulled away enough with a couple of big shots by Ashley Hawkins, who ranks sixth in the state in scoring, and made enough free throws down the stretch.
Freshman guard Trasara Alexander led Irvine Valley with 16 points, 12 rebounds and three assists. She had eight offensive boards.
Freeman ended with 14 points and sophomore forward Giselle Martinez ended with 11 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
But the Lasers shot just 29.3 percent from the field (17 of 58) as a team in the game and committed 21 turnovers.
Cypress was paced by Hawkins with 17 points, eight rebounds and three steals. Jasmine Uy added 14 points and two steals and Oviedo had 13 points and three steals for the Chargers.
The two teams combined for 46 fouls in the contest, which took almost two hours to play.
Irvine Valley is at it again on Friday, traveling to Fullerton for a 6 p.m. conference game.
