Sophomore guard Tashon Brown finished with a career-high 34 points in Lake Forest's 81-72 loss Monday night at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.
Brown shot 12-for-16 from the field, 3-for-5 on three-pointers, and 7-for-9 from the foul line in the contest. He surpassed his previous career-high of 28 points on a tie-breaking basket with nearly eight minutes remaining that put the Foresters on top 60-58. The Stags, however, scored the next seven points and led by at least three the rest of the way. Lake Forest cut the deficit to four points a few times down the stretch, the last on a pair of free throws by freshman wing Reece Taylor with 2:41 on the clock, but got no closer.
The visitors led by as many as nine points early in the game but trailed 36-30 at halftime. The Foresters pulled even with 14:29 left on a traditional three-point play by Brown and went ahead a minute-and-a-half later when junior guard Sean Espinosa accomplished the same feat. They maintained a small lead for nearly five minutes before the home team knotted the score at 58 and then took the lead for good shortly thereafter.
Espinosa, whose hometown of Pasadena, California, is just 30 minutes away from Claremont, was next on the team with 20 points and was the only other Forester to score in double figures. Junior forward Blake Godbold led Lake Forest with five rebounds and Espinosa with three assists and four steals on the night.
Both teams shot 51 percent from the floor but the Stags outscored their guests 27-16 from the free throw line and had a 38-21 advantage on the boards.
The loss dropped the Foresters' overall record on the season to 4-5 while Claremont-Mudd-Scripps improved to 8-2.
Lake Forest will resume Midwest Conference play this weekend in Iowa, where they will travel to Grinnell College for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off on Friday and to Cornell College the following afternoon for a 1:00 contest.