The Lake Forest College men's basketball team dropped an 88-81 overtime decision to visiting Knox College on Saturday. Forester sophomore forward Jim Schick scored a season-high 27 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in the game.
Nine of Schick's rebounds came at the offensive end of the court. He entered the weekend ranked 10th in the nation with 4.0 offensive rebounds per contest. The Foresters pulled down 24 offensive rebounds and scored 25 second-chance points in the contest.
Junior forward Torrey Davis was the only other Forester to score in doubles figures. He finished with 17 points and added eight rebounds, a team-high four assists, and a pair of steals. Senior forward Brian Madson finished with seven points, 10 rebounds, three steals, and two blocked shots.
Lake Forest shot just 39 percent from the field while the Prairie Fire connected on 44.3 percent of their field goal attempts. The Foresters also struggled from three-point range, where they shot just 3-for-16, and from the free throw line, where they were successful only 14 times in 35 attempts. The home team had a 55-47 edge in rebounds and forced 20 turnovers while committing 15.
There were eight lead changes and neither team had more than a four-point advantage in the game's first 14 minutes. Knox then pulled ahead by as many as nine points before a three-pointer at the buzzer by Forester junior guard Austin Terry made the score 36-30 in favor of the visitors at halftime.
Lake Forest pulled to within a point on a layup by Schick with just under 17 minutes to play but Knox was soon leading by nine again with 11 minutes left. Schick and junior guard Chase Janer each scored four points during a 9-0 Forester run later in the period and put the home team ahead by a basket with two minutes to play. Knox scored the next seven points but missed a couple of free throws in the final 20 seconds, leaving the door open for a Forester comeback. Trailing by three in the closing seconds, Lake Forest sophomore guard Andrew Toth faked a shot to get his defender up the air and then drew a foul while shooting a three-pointer. He knocked down all three free throws with three-tenths of a second on the clock to take the game into overtime.
Schick scored the first two points of the extra period and the home team led by one after a basket by Davis with 3:10 remaining. Knox, however, outscored the Foresters 13-5 the rest of the way to secure the victory.
Lake Forest fell to 9-10 overall and 8-7 in Midwest Conference play while the Prairie Fire improved to 6-14 overall and 4-11 in the league.
The Foresters will travel to St. Norbert College on Tuesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
