The Forester women's basketball team posted a 79-75 victory at Beloit College Tuesday night and completed the fall semester with an overall record of 4-4. Forester freshman guard Michelle Ricolcol filled up the stat sheet with a season-high 18 points, six assists, and four steals and she added four rebounds.
Ricolcol shot 7-for-11 from the field and 4-for-7 at the free throw line.
Senior forward Liz Radtke led the Foresters with 21 points and she added seven rebounds. Senior guard Alex Messacar also reached double figures with 13 points.
Lake Forest freshman forward Sam Cady came off the bench to pull down a team-high nine rebounds, sophomore guard Jenna Rice had eight boards, and senior forward Courtney Faulstick added seven as the Foresters out-rebounded the home team 47-39 on the night. The visitors also committed just 18 turnovers to the Buccaneers' 24.
Beloit shot 46 percent from the floor while Lake Forest made just 40.5 percent of its field goal attempts. Thanks to their edge in rebounds and turnovers, however, the Foresters put up 24 more shots than Beloit.
The Foresters jumped out to a 12-3 lead but Beloit bounced back with nine straight points to tie the score. The home team led by one before closing out the opening period on a 9-0 run and taking a 38-28 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Messacar scored six points during a 10-2 Lake Forest run early in the second. The deficit was back up to 10 with 11:30 to play, however, but a three-pointer by Messacar and a basket by Radtke cut it in half. After a pair of Beloit free throws, Messacar, Rice, and Radtke made layups to make the score 58-57 in favor of Beloit with 9:13 left. The Bucs pulled back ahead by seven before an 8-0 Forester run gave the visitors their first lead of the half with 4:28 remaining. The teams traded five-point runs prior to a Beloit basket giving the home team a 73-72 with 54 seconds remaining. A bucket by junior guard/forward Gina Ambrose 12 seconds later regained the lead for the Foresters and a free throw by Ricolcol with 24.5 ticks left made it a two-point game. A pair of Buccaneer free throws tied it with 16.8 seconds on the clock but Ricolcol connected for what proved to be the winning shot with 3.9 seconds remaining. She also stole the inbounds pass and made a pair of free throws with 1.9 to play, clinching the victory for the Foresters.
Lake Forest raised its Midwest Conference mark to 2-3 while Beloit fell to 0-5 in the league and 1-7 overall.
The Foresters' next two games will be played at the D3hoops.com Classic in Las Vegas, Nevada. There they will take on the University of La Verne on Saturday, December 29, at 10:00 a.m. and Denison University the next day at noon. Lake Forest will resume conference play on January 2 against visiting Ripon College.