The Lake Forest College men's basketball team was knocked off 61-58 by Ripon College at home Tuesday evening. Senior guard James Stack made four three-pointers and led the Foresters with a career-high 24 points in the contest.
Stack was 7-for-11 from the field overall and 4-for-8 from beyond the arc. He also made all six of his free throw attempts but was the only player on the team to score in double figures. Freshman forward Jim Schick led Lake Forest with six rebounds and senior guard Jordan Gipson with three assists.
The teams statistics in the game were remarkably similar. Ripon connected on 21 of 50 shots from the field and seven of 21 from three-point range while the Foresters were 20-for-50 from the floor and 6-for-20 from beyond the arc. Both teams made a dozen free throws and pulled down 32 rebounds and the home team committed just one more turnover (10) than the Red Hawks (9).
Lake Forest led by as many as eight points in the first half but a 10-0 Ripon run put the visitors ahead late in the period. Stack made a pair of free throws to tie the score with four seconds left in the half but a Red Hawk three-pointer at the buzzer made it 35-32 at halftime.
A three-pointer by Stack tied the game at 37 with 16:16 remaining and he connected again from long-range to give the Foresters their first lead of the half at 47-46 with 8:53 to play. The score was tied at 49, 53, and 55 before Ripon took the lead for good on a jumper with 1:18 left. After another basket by the visitors 53 seconds later, Stack connected again from well beyond the three-point line with 9.4 seconds on the clock, cutting the deficit to one. A pair of Red Hawk free throws with 8.7 ticks left made it a three-point game again and the Foresters final three-point attempt at the buzzer did not connect.
Lake Forest fell to 7-14 overall and 6-10 in Midwest Conference play. Ripon is now 13-7 overall and 10-5 in the league.
The Foresters will not play this weekend and will resume their 2013-14 schedule at Lawrence University next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.