The Lake Forest College women's basketball team earned a hard-fought 51-49 victory over Cornell College at home Saturday afternoon. Forester senior guard Danielle Canulli recorded her first double-double with a dozen points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
All but two of Canulli's points came at the free throw line, where she shot 10-for-12 in the contest. Junior guard Michelle Ricolcol was the home team's leading scorer with 13 points and senior guard Abby Wiedman matched Canulli with 12. Ricolcol shot 3-for-4 from three-point range and added five rebounds. Junior forward K.C. Stralka grabbed seven rebounds and dished out a game-high four assists.
Forester sophomore forwards Brie Majkowski and Brittany Avonts also pulled down seven rebounds as the home team had a 48-38 edge on the boards over their much taller opponent. Despite shooting just 32.6 percent from the field, Lake Forest had the advantage in that category as well by limiting the Rams to just 29.5 percent.
Cornell jumped out to a 5-0 lead but Lake Forest scored the next six points to take a brief lead. The visitors pulled back ahead and led by as many as six in the first half. The Foresters came back, however, and a basket by Majkowski with seven seconds left gave the home team a 26-24 lead at halftime.
Lake Forest extended the lead to 10 points early in the second half and led by that many again halfway through the period. A 12-0 run by the Rams, however, gave them a 42-40 lead with five minutes left. The Foresters responded with back-to-back three-pointers by Ricolcol and added another one by Wiedman to finish off a 9-0 run. Cornell took advantage of several missed free throws by the home team down the stretch and trailed by just one after a three-pointer with 24.9 seconds on the clock. Canulli was fouled and made one of two free throws with 17.7 seconds remaining and the Forester defense stopped the Rams from scoring on their final possession of the contest.
Both teams are now 7-5 in Midwest Conference play this season. Lake Forest improved to 7-9 overall while Cornell fell to 9-8.
The Foresters will travel to Appleton, Wisconsin, on Tuesday to take on Lawrence University at 5:30 p.m.