JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's basketball team found themselves with a nearly insurmountable deficit early in the second half on Friday night against Lake Forest College, but the Blueboys kept fighting in spite of the odds and nearly pulled off the miraculous comeback before falling to the Foresters, 105-92. Lake Forest improves to 11-7 (7-4 Midwest Conference), while IC drops to 4-14 (2-9 MWC).
In
Steven Price's first career start in front of a home crowd, the sophomore opened the scoring with a driving three-point play, however Lake Forest's Danny Sotos was tough to stop in the early going and he accounted for 12 of the Forester's first 14 points in the opening five minutes. A three-point play from Sotos made it 14-9 in favor of the visitors.
Trae Robinson III entered the contest and quickly scored on a hook shot, but Lake Forest followed with a 9-0 run to push its lead to 23-11. The Foresters entered the night with all five starters averaging in double-figures and it showed as Aram Arslanian and Sean Espinosa took over the scoring load as the half went along, pushing Lake Forest out to a 54-31 halftime lead. The Blueboys did get some consolation at the first-half horn as
Sean McDonald banked in a three-quarters court heave to bring the crowd to life.
As the second half opened, the Lake Forest lead grew to 31 points in the early going of the second half but Illinois College began to build momentum and cut it to 21 points, 70-49, with a 12-2 run capped with a
Trevor Otten three-ball. Two technical fouls around the 12-minute mark helped the Foresters stem the tide for awhile, hitting all four of the ensuing free throws and were then fouled, hitting two more for a six-point possession.
Despite the bump in the road, Illinois College continued to chip away at the deficit and the Blueboys soon had the Lake Forest lead down to 12, 81-69, after a
Michael Adams layup. The teams stayed neck-and-neck from there, with the Blueboys getting as close as nine points at 96-87 with 1:27 to play before simply running out of time.
Speer paced the offense with 24 points and nine assists. McDonald added 16 on the night. Off the bench, Adams had 12 and Robinson III had 11. Lake Forest lived up to its billing, putting all five starters in double-figures, including Tashon Brown with a game-high 25 points.
Illinois College continues its home stand tomorrow afternoon with a 3 p.m. tip-off against Beloit College.
