By: Illinois College rallied to tie the game late in the contest, but the Foresters pulled it out with some free throws down the stretch.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – In spite of a second-half rally that brought the teams level twice in the final five minutes, Lake Forest College did enough down the closing stretch to eke out a 70-67 win over the Illinois College men's basketball team on Wednesday night. The Foresters improve to 2-5 (2-2 Midwest Conference), while the Blueboys dropped to 1-5 (0-4 MWC).
Lake Forest came out firing from beyond the arc and the Foresters connected on seven of their first eight three-point attempts before closing out the first half at 7-of-10 from distance. That hot start helped LFC establish an early lead on the Blueboys that reached double-digits at 17-7 with less than six minutes gone in the game.
Behind a quick spark from
Tim Parks off the bench, Illinois College pulled within three at 21-18 after Parks made a steal and went the length of the court for a breakaway layup. IC made it a two-point game at 23-21, but the Foresters responded with a 7-0 run. A jumper with five seconds remaining in the opening half put Lake Forest up, 34-28, at halftime.
Coming out of the break, Lake Forest scored the first six points to take its largest lead of the game, 40-28, with 18:26 remaining.
Mason Speer responded with a four-point play, knocking home a three-pointer from the wing while being fouled. After making the free throw, Speer then assisted on a
Payton Dugan layup to make it 42-34.
When Lake Forest scored inside with 9:23 left in the game, the Foresters were still up eight but the Blueboys were just getting started. The next time down the floor,
Max Stutsman canned a three-pointer from the top of the key while Speer was trucked over on a screen by a Lake Forest player. That resulted in a one-and-one for Speer and he made both to convert a five-point play, making it 48-45.
Over the ensuing minutes, Illinois College would slice the Lake Forest lead to one point on two occasions, but the Foresters had upped the lead back to 58-51 with 5:52 remaining. On consecutive trips down the floor, Dugan was fouled and hit both free throws, then scored an uncontested layup after a nifty find from Speer to make it 58-55. After a missed jumper from the Foresters, Speer made a three-pointer and the game was finally tied at 58-58 with 4:36 to play.
Two free throws from
Tim Schappaugh at the 3:18 mark of the second half knotted the score once again at 60-60, but the Foresters pulled away after that. Eric Porter gave Lake Forest the lead for good, banking in a jumper with just over two minutes to play. He then made a layup to give LFC a four-point advantage. The Blueboys closed to within a point in the final minute of play, but Lake Forest maintained its advantage at the line. In desperation mode with less than four seconds to play, Speer had a long pass upcourt tipped away and stolen to end the game.
Dugan matched Lake Forest's Porter with 20 points on the night and added four rebounds and three assists. Speer ended with 16 points, six assists and four rebounds. Parks scored nine off the bench for the Blueboys while Schappaugh and Stutsman each finished with seven points each.
Illinois College closes out a four-game home stand on Dec. 10 with a non-conference matchup against Robert Morris University-Springfield. Tip-off is slated for 3 p.m.
