The Forester men's basketball team fell 58-51 to Ripon College at home on Tuesday.
It was the fewest points allowed and scored by Lake Forest this season.
Sophomore guard Rocco Ronzio and junior forward Frank Siegien led the home team with 14 points apiece. Ronzio connected a season-high four times from three-point range and Siegien also finished with a team-high eight rebounds.
Lake Forest senior guard Sean Espinosa dished out a game-high four assists and scored 11 points to move past Al Shethar (1967-71) and Karl Maass (1974-78) and into fourth place in program history with 1,444 in his career. Next on the list is Travis Clark, who scored 1,493 points before graduating in 2012.
The Foresters limited Ripon to 37.7 percent shooting from the floor but connected on just 34.4 percent of their own field goal attempts. Lake Forest made seven three-pointers to the Red Hawks' five but were outscored 13-2 at the foul line. The home team had a slight 39-37 edge in rebounds but committed 11 of the game's 19 turnovers.
Tuesday's first half included four ties and four lead changes. Lake Forest trailed by five early before rattling off seven straight points to pull ahead 12-10. They built a seven-point lead only to see the Red Hawks go on a 10-0 run that made the score 21-18 in favor of Ripon. Another seven-point run by the Foresters gave them a three-point edge and they were ahead 30-28 at halftime.
The teams were separated by no more than three points during a stretch of nearly 14 minutes of the second half. That span ended in the middle of an 11-0 Ripon run that put the visitors on top by nine with less than four minutes to play. The Foresters answered with three consecutive baskets to make it a three-point game but got no closer.
The loss dropped Lake Forest's overall record to 5-11 and the team is now 4-3 in Midwest Conference play. Ripon raised its overall record to 10-5 and remained perfect in MWC play after six league games.
The Foresters will travel to Knox College on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. tip-off before hosting Cornell College Sunday afternoon at 3:00.
