Big Second Half Lifts Lake Forest over Lawrence

Photo by Abby King
Photo by Abby King

Freshman guard Tashon Brown filled up the stat sheets and helped lead the Forester men's basketball team to an 85-63 victory over Lawrence University at home Tuesday night.

Brown scored 14 points and led the home team with seven rebounds and seven assists. He also added two steals and a blocked shot while committing just two turnovers in the contest.

Fellow Forester guard Sean Espinosa finished with a team-high 22 points and dished out four assists. The sophomore connected on a career-high six three-pointers in nine attempts and was 8-for-13 from the field overall. Junior guard Sam Husting knocked down four of eight shots from beyond the arc and scored 17 points, two more than senior guard Jordan Moran, who was 7-for-11 from the field.

Lake Forest entered the night with the highest field goal percentage in the Midwest Conference while Lawrence led the league in field goal percentage defense. Something had to give and it turned out to be the Viking defense, as the Foresters shot a season-high 58.9 percent overall and made exactly half of their 22 attempts from three-point range. The visitors shot 44.9 percent from the field and 6-for-15 on three-pointers. Lake Forest had a slight 31-26 edge in rebounds and was responsible for 15 of the game's 33 turnovers.

Both teams shot 50 percent from the field in the first half. Lawrence led by as many as eight points and the Foresters by three in the period, which ended with the teams deadlocked at 31.

The second half began with a traditional three-point play by Husting that put the home team on top for good. It was just a one-point game at 46-45 with 14:38 to play when the Foresters rattled off 13 consecutive points, including eight by Espinosa, to make it a 14-point game. The Vikings cut that lead in half before a 22-5 run by the home team put the game out of reach.

The victory improved the Foresters' overall record to 9-5 and MWC mark to 5-2, leapfrogging Lawrence in the standings. The Vikings are now 8-7 overall and 5-3 in the league.

Lake Forest will travel to Iowa to face Cornell College on Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.