Junior guard Sean Espinosa, senior guard Sam Husting, and senior wing Aram Arslanian combined to make a dozen three-pointers and score 50 points Saturday afternoon in Lake Forest's 65-60 victory over Knox College.
Husting shot 6-for-11 from beyond the arc and led the Foresters with a season-high 20 points. Espinosa and Arslanian added 15 points apiece with Espinosa adding six rebounds, four assists, and five steals and Arslanian leading all players in the contest with a career-high six assists. Freshman wing Reece Taylor paced the home team with a season-high nine rebounds.
Lake Forest's 37 percent shooting from the field was slightly below Knox's 38 percent but the home team was 15-for-32 on three-pointers while the Prairie Fire made 10 of 35 attempts from long range. The visitors had a 49-34 edge in rebounds but committed 13 turnovers to the Foresters' eight.
The largest lead for the Foresters in the opening period was a single point while Knox was ahead by as many as seven. The score was 31-28 in favor of the Prairie Fire going into the locker room at halftime.
Knox opened up a nine-point lead five minutes into the second half before Espinosa scored seven points and Arslanian five during a 12-2 run that put Lake Forest on top 45-44 with 8:48 remaining. After the Prairie Fire regained the lead, three-pointers by junior wing Michael Drew, Husting, and Arslanian made the score 54-46 with six-and-a-half minutes to play. The Forester lead reached 11 after a Husting three-pointer with 2:09 left but eight straight points by the visitors made it a three-point game with 38.6 seconds on the clock. The teams traded turnovers and Arslanian secured the victory with a pair of free throws with nine seconds remaining.
The victory evened the Foresters' overall record at 9-9 and they improved to 6-5 in Midwest Conference play. Knox fell to 6-13 overall and 2-10 in the league.
Lake Forest will host Ripon College Wednesday evening at 5:30.