The Lake Forest College men's basketball team completed a season sweep of St. Norbert College with a 62-54 victory at home Friday night. Senior post player Travis Clark tied for game-high honors with 17 points and pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds.
Clark shot 6-for-10 from the field and 5-for-6 from the free throw line in the contest. He also added a pair of blocked shots and a steal in 33 minutes of play.
Lake Forest sophomore guard James Stack matched Clark with 17 points and junior point guard Jeff Beck finished with 16. Stack made four of seven field goal attempts, including three of four tries from three-point range. Beck shot 6-for-10 from the floor, amde a pair of three-pointers, and added four assists. Senior forward Nate Bateman led all players in the game with five assists and chipped in with four points and five rebounds.
The Foresters shot just 35 percent from the floor in the first half but made half of their field goal attempts in the second to finish at 43.2 percent. They also held the Green Knights to 33.9 percent from the field and out-rebounded the visitors 39-34, despite a 22-17 deficit in that category at halftime. Lake Forest committed 14 turnovers in the contest, twice as many as St. Norbert.
Clark scored six points as the Foresters jumped out to a 9-2 advantage. St. Norbert scored the next eight points for the first of six lead changes in the opening period. Neither team led by more than four points the rest of the half and a three-pointer by Beck with just over two minutes on the clock gave the home team a 23-22 lead that lasted until the buzzer.
Five points by Beck and four from Clark early in the second half helped extend the Lake Forest lead to nine (34-25) but a trio of three-pointers by St. Norbert erased it with 14 minutes to play. Stack scored the game's next five points and the Foresters led the rest of the way. The margin was just two points (48-46) with five minutes left but an 8-2 run helped the Foresters pull away and six made free throws in the final 77 seconds, including four in as many attempts by Stack, sealed the victory.
The Foresters' 13th straight victory gives them a 13-1 overall record and a perfect 9-0 mark in Midwest Conference play. They are also just one shy of the program record for consecutive wins, which began in 1914-15 and ended early the following season. St. Norbert fell to 9-6 overall and 6-4 in the league.
Lake Forest will be back on its home court tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. against Ripon College.
