The Lake Forest College men's basketball team was defeated 85-81 by Carroll University Friday afternoon (February 26) in the semifinals of the Midwest Conference Tournament. The Foresters finish the season with a 14-10 overall record while the 16-8 Pioneers advance to the Saturday's final against either Ripon College or league champion and tournament host St. Norbert College.
Senior guard Victor Campbell (Milwaukee, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran) led Lake Forest with 20 points in his final collegiate game. Sophomore forward Nate Bateman (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest Academy) and post player Travis Clark (Evanston, Ill./Evanston) were next with 16 apiece and freshman guard Jeff Beck (Algonquin, Ill./Dundee-Crown) added 14. Clark pulled down a game-high nine rebounds and added four assists and a pair of blocked shots. Senior forward Patrick Hanley (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield) led all players in the contest with eight assists and became the program's all-time leader with 342 in his career.
The Foresters shot 51.5 percent from the field but just 7-for-25
from three-point range and 6-for-13 from the free throw line.
Carroll connected on 55.8 percent of its field goal attempts and 15
of 18 foul shots. Lake Forest had a 34-29 edge in rebounds while
the Pioneers committed just five of the game's 14 turnovers.
Lake Forest led by as many as eight points during an opening period
that included 10 lead changes, the last on a basket by Campbell in
the closing seconds, giving the Foresters a 36-35 halftime
advantage.
The lead changed hands seven more times in the first four minutes
of the second half. Carroll took the lead for good on a basket with
15:53 remaining and an 8-0 run by the Pioneers later in the period
gave them a game-high 11-point advantage (64-53) with
nine-and-a-half minutes to play. Lake Forest cut the deficit to
three points but it was back up to 10 with a minute on the clock.
Baskets by Hanley, Bateman, and Clark closed the gap to four with
27 second left. Bateman followed up a Carroll foul shot with a
layup and two more Pioneer free throws with a three-pointer with 13
seconds to play and the Foresters trailing by just two. After a
pair of timeouts, Carroll was able to inbound the ball for a
break-away layup to put the game away.
In addition to Hanley's career mark for assists, he raised his
single-season record to 140. Clark's .686 field goal percentage on
the year is the highest in program history and his 32 blocked shots
rank third. Campbell finished his career fifth in team annals with
124 three-pointers.
Hanley, Campbell, and fellow senior Jaron Eanes
(Cleveland, Ohio/ Lake Forest Academy) are the only three players
the team will lose to graduation in May.
ill_thumb.jpg?max_width=280&max_height=160&crop=true)
