The Lake Forest College men's basketball team was edged out by visiting Beloit College Tuesday night. Forester senior guard James Stack led the home team with 22 points in the contest.
Stack shot 6-for-11 from the field and made the first eight free throws he attempted before missing the last intentionally in the final seconds. He also added a pair of steals.
Sophomore forward Torrey Davis was one of three other Foresters to score in double figures. He netted a career-high 19 points and freshman forward Jim Schick scored a career-high 15. Senior guard Jordan Gipson added 10 points and his six rebounds tied Schick for the team lead.
Beloit shot 49 percent from the field and made eight of 18 three-pointers and 20 of 26 free throws. The Foresters shot 42.9 percent from the floor with six three-pointers in 19 attempts. They also connected on 22 of 29 foul shots and committed just 10 turnovers to the Buccaneers' 12. The visitors had a slight 33-30 edge in rebounds.
There were seven lead changes by the time the score was 12-10 in favor of Beloit, who led by as many as seven points in the opening period. Lake Forest battled back and there were four ties and four more lead changes in the final five minutes of the half, which ended with the Bucaneers leading 38-37.
The second half started with baskets by Davis and junior forward Brian Madson, giving the home team a 41-38 lead. A 7-0 run by Beloit put the visitors on top for awhile but the Foresters eventually regained a one-point lead on a jumper by Davis with 10 minutes to play. The Bucs led by as many as eight points later in the period but the Foresters battled back again and trimmed the margin to two onreak of a pair of free throws by Stack with 33.6 seconds on the clock. Lake Forest trailed by four when Stack's three-pointer while being fouled rimmed out with just 3.1 seconds to play. He connected on the first two foul shots, extending his streak of made free throws to 22, before intentionally missing the third. The Foresters were unable to come up with the rebound and Beloit ran out the clock to secure the win.
Lake Forest fell to 3-5 overall on the season and 2-3 in Midwest Conference play. It was Beloit's first conference victory in four tries and the Buccaneers are now 2-5 overall.
The Foresters will not play again until they travel to Hope College for the Holland Sentinel/Russ DeVette Tournament, which begins on Friday, December 20. Lake Forest will take on the hosts at 8:00 EST that night and will play again the following afternoon at either 1:00 or 3:00 EST.
