The Forester women's basketball team was defeated 98-93 at Knox College on Saturday. Lake Forest senior guard Sam Schuring broke the program's career assists record less than five minutes into the game and scored her 1,000th career point early in the second half.
Schuring finished the game with eight points, eight rebounds, and six assists. She now has 377 career assists, five more than the previous school record set by Priscilla Posick Rollman in 1990. Schuring became just the seventh player in team history to surpass 1,000 career points and has 1,002 with three games remaining.
Junior guard Danielle Canulli led Lake Forest with a career-high 36 points in the game. Her single-game point total ranks fifth in program history and she became just the second Forester to score 30 or more points in a game twice in the same season. Canulli shot 15-for-24 from the field, tying the third-highest single-game field goal total in team history.
Forester junior guard Abby Wiedman scored 17 points and senior forward Gina Ambrose added 15. Sophomore forward Sam Cady finished with 11 points, dished out five assists, and led the team with a career-high 10 rebounds.
The visitors shot 46.3 percent from the field while limiting Knox to just 34.9. Thirteen of the Prairie Fire's 30 field goals were three-pointers and the home team outscored the Foresters 25-17 from the free throw line. Lake Forest was out-rebounded 52-50 and committed 26 of the game's 50 turnovers.
Knox jumped out to a 14-4 lead but the Foresters scored the next 10 points to tie the game. A 12-2 run put the home team back up by 10 but Lake Forest battled back again and finally took the lead for the first time on a traditional three-point play by Wiedman with 3:53 to play in the half. The Forester lead grew to as many as six points and the visitors led 52-48 at halftime.
Lake Forest led by six again early in the second half before a 9-0 run by the Prairie Fire gave them a three-point advantage. After the lead changed hands six more times in the next five minutes, Knox gradually pulled away and led by as many as eight points (89-81) with 4:51 left. Canulli scored six points during a 10-3 run that cut the deficit to a single point but the visitors were unable to complete the comeback. Knox connected on six of eight foul shots in the final 71 seconds to secure the victory.
The Foresters fell to 5-15 overall this season and 5-10 in Midwest Conference play. The Prairie Fire are now 6-13 overall and 4-10 in the league.
Lake Forest will host Ripon College Tuesday night at 7:30.
