Behind the 25th career double-double by senior forward Jim Schick, the Forester men's basketball team earned a much-needed 70-67 victory Wednesday night at Illinois College.
Schick scored 14 points, pulled down a dozen rebounds, and added two steals in the contest. The performance gave him two double-doubles and a triple-double in three road games in a six-day span.
Junior guard Eric Porter led the visitors with 20 points and added six rebounds. He knocked down all four three-pointers he attempted in the first half, giving Lake Forest a 34-28 edge at halftime. The Foresters never trailed and led by as many as 10 points in the game's first 20 minutes.
After scoring the first six points of the second half, the Foresters lead reached a game-high 12 points at 40-28. The Blueboys chipped away at the deficit, twice cut it to a single point, and then tied the score at 58 with four-and-a-half minutes to play. A basket by Schick was then matched by two Illinois College free throws. Back-to-back layups by Porter, however, put the visitors ahead for good. Lake Forest led by two before a pair of free throws by senior guard Mike Rueffer, who led Lake Forest with six assists, with 40.8 seconds remaining made it a four-point game. Porter connected on one of two free throws with 22.8 seconds left, knocked down both attempts with 5.4 ticks on the clock, and made one more with 3.1 seconds to play to help secure the victory.
The Foresters are now 2-5 overall this season and 2-2 in Midwest Conference play. Illinois College fell to 1-5 overall and 0-4 in the league.
Lake Forest's next two games will be played at Cal Lutheran in the Thrivent Financial Tournament December 29-30. The Foresters' semifinal opponent will be Luther College and tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. (PST).