The Lake Forest College men's basketball team outscored host Grinnell College 121-120 in overtime on Saturday in the final game of the season.
The Foresters' point total is the third-highest mark in program history. They shot 62.3 percent from the field and 20-for-24 from the foul line while maintaining a commanding 54-34 edge in rebounds.
Senior wing Johnny Roeser led all players in the game and matched his career-high with 30 points. He made 12 of 15 field goal attempts and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds on the evening.
Sophomore guard Alex Knight was next on the team with 28 points while sophomore forward Michael Michaud had a career-high 26. Both players added nine rebounds. Sophomore guard Elijah Bull dished out six assists on the day and 102 this season.
Knight finished the season as the Midwest Conference's leading scorer with 18.1 points per league game. Roeser led the conference with 10.5 rebounds per MWC contest and Bull was second in assists per game with 3.8.
Grinnell led Saturday's game by as many as a dozen points early on but the Foresters were ahead 58-56 at halftime.
A 10-0 run early in the second half put the Pioneers on top and their lead soon grew to 15 points. The visitors' comeback began with a 9-0 run but they trailed 102-94 with 4:50 to play. A 10-0 Forester run included six points by Knight, who gave his team the lead with 3:21 left. The lead changed hands three more time in the next three minutes and the Foresters found themselves down two before Knight forced overtime on a layup with 7.2 seconds on the clock.
The home team scored the first six points of overtime but the Foresters came back and tied the game at 117 on a pair of Roeser free throws with 1:48 left. The Pioneers regained the lead on a three-pointer with 55.4 seconds on the clock but they did not score again. Michaud pulled Lake Forest to within a point on a basket with 47 seconds to play and, after a Grinnell turnover, his layup off a long pass from Bull with 15.9 seconds on the clock turned out to be the game-winner.
The Foresters completed the season 11-14 overall and 8-8 in the conference. Grinnell finished 8-16 overall and 4-12 in the league.
