Sophomore guard Sean Espinosa led all players with a career-high 24 points Friday night as the Lake Forest College men's basketball team defeated visiting Carthage College 74-65 to begin the season.
Espinosa shot 10-for-18 from the field and connected on three of eight attempts from three-point range. He also added six rebounds, three assists, and a pair of steals.
Freshman guard Tashon Brown was next on the team with 20 points in his collegiate debut. Brown made five of nine field goal attempts and three of five shots from beyond the arc. Junior guard Aram Arslanian and senior forward Danny Sotos also reached double figures with 13 and 12 points, respectively, and each pulled down seven rebounds.
Led by senior guard Jordan Moran with eight, the Foresters out-rebounded the Red Men 41-40 and committed 13 turnovers to Carthage's 16. Shooting percentage was also in the home team's favor with the Lake Forest at 42.2 percent and the visitors at 35.1. The teams combined to make just 11 three-pointers in 51 attempts.
Carthage scored the game's first basket but led for the last time at 4-2. The Foresters pulled ahead by as many as nine points on five different occasions in the first half but that advantage quickly disappeared when the Red Men rattled off nine straight points to tie the game at 32 with two minutes remaining in the half. A basket by Arslanian ended the run and Lake Forest led 36-35 after 20 minutes of play.
A 10-3 Forester run made it a 10-point game at the midpoint of the second half and the margin remained between eight and 12 points the rest of the way.
Lake Forest will travel to North Park University on Tuesday for a 7:00 p.m. tip-off.
