The Forester women's basketball team was defeated 68-66 in overtime by visiting Illinois College on Wednesday. Sophomore guard Sam Schuring led Lake Forest with 18 points.
Schuring also tied for the team lead in rebounds with a career-high nine, dished out four assists, and matched her career high for steals with five.
Forester senior guard Emily Weber and sophomore guard Alex Massacar also reached doubles figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Freshman forward Lauren Erickson tied Schuring for the team lead with nine rebounds and senior guard Aimee Lockwood matched her four assists.
The Foresters shot just 38 percent form the field in the game but held the Lady Blues to 36.9 percent. The teams combined to make just seven of 38 three-pointers. The visitors knocked down 16 of 22 shots from the free throw line while Lake Forest made nine of 11. Illinois College had a significant 51-37 edge in rebounds but the Foresters committed just 15 of the game's 42 turnovers.
A 12-1 run gave Illinois College a game-high 11-point lead late in the first half, which ended with the visitors ahead 32-26.
The Foresters used a 10-1 run early in the second half to tie the score and took their first lead in nearly 30 minutes of game time on a layup by Messacar with seven minutes on the clock. The Lady Blues regained a one-point lead (54-53) with 4:23 to play in the second half. After nearly three minutes of scoreless basketball, Erickson made a basket to put the home team back on top and a layup by Lockwood with exactly a minute to play made the score 57-54 in favor of the Foresters. Illinois College pulled to within two on a free throw with 39.8 seconds remaining and forced overtime on a basket with 4.1 ticks left.
Lake Forest scored first in overtime but trailed by two until a three-pointer by Weber gave the home team a 64-63 lead with 1:06 remaining. Weber also added to the lead on a layup with 38 seconds left. The Lady Blues tied the score on a three-pointer seven seconds later, rebounded a Forester miss with 13 ticks on the clock, and made a pair of game-winning free throws with 6.9 seconds to play.
The Foresters fell to 7-8 overall and 5-5 in Midwest Conference play while Illinois College raised its overall record to 9-7 and league mark to 7-4.
Lake Forest's next game will be at Grinnell College at 1:00 Saturday afternoon. A live video webcast of the contest will be available at www.pennatlantic.com.