The Lake Forest College men's basketball team erased a 13-point deficit and prevailed 78-76 Wednesday evening at Monmouth College.
The Fighting Scots led 57-44 prior to Forester junior forward Frank Siegien scoring six points during a 10-2 run that trimmed the margin to five at the midpoint of the second half. The margin was back up to eight before Rocco Ronzio made the visitors' first three-pointer of the contest with 8:18 remaining, fellow sophomore guard Zach Foster connected on another the next time down the court, and senior guard Sean Espionsa's traditional three-point play gave the Foresters their first lead of the evening (65-64) with 7:22 left.
Another basket and free throw from Siegien capped off the 12-point run and the Lake Forest lead remained between one and five points the rest of the way. Both teams missed a pair of last-minute foul shots with the Foresters ahead 76-75 before two free throws by Foster with 14.1 seconds on the clock made it a three-point game. The first of two Monmouth free throw attempts with 2.7 seconds remaining pulled the Scots to within a basket. They missed the second intentionally and got the rebound, but missed a pair of game-tying attempts in the final few seconds.
Espinosa scored 19 of his game-high 25 points after halftime and he led all players with nine assists in the contest. He moved past Travis Clark (2008-12) and into third place in program history with 1,497 career points.
Lake Forest junior wing Johnny Roeser carried the visitors in the opening period with 15 points and he finished the contest with 19 while Siegien added a dozen. Sophomore forward Val Oplchenski chipped in with eight points on 4-for-4 shooting off the bench.
Roeser and Foster led the Foresters in rebounds with six apiece but Monmouth had a 37-33 advantage in that category as a team. Lake Forest shot 49.2 percent from the field while limiting the home team to 42.2 percent. Both teams made 16 free throws, although the Foresters needed just 19 attempts and the Scots 26.
Lake Forest swept the season series with Monmouth and improved to 7-12 overall and 6-4 in Midwest Conference play. The Fighting Scots fell to 2-12 overall and 1-5 in the league.
The Foresters will travel to Lawrence University on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off. No visiting fans will be allowed to attend the game.