The Lake Forest College women's basketball team extended its winning streak to five games on Saturday, edging out visiting Monmouth College 52-51. Junior guard Michelle Ricolcol led the Foresters with a dozen points and her free throws with just 4.3 seconds on the clock turned a one-point deficit into a victory.
Ricolcol helped set up the dramatic finish by blocking a three-point field goal attempt with less than 20 seconds remaining and the home team trailing 51-50. After a Forester timeout with 12.1 seconds on the clock, Ricolcol inbounded and was given the ball back well beyond the top of the key. She drove into the lane, stopped, spun to her left, and was fouled on the shot. Monmouth called a timeout after Ricolcol tied the score on her first free throw and she was true again on the second. Lake Forest stole to ball in the final seconds to secure the victory.
Sophomore forward Brittany Avonts was next on the team with nine points while junior forward K.C. Stralka and freshman guard Kelsey Schmitt added eight apiece. Avonts also grabbed seven rebounds and blocked four shots for the second straight contest. Stralka and senior guard Jenna Rice tied for team-high honors with nine rebounds apiece, a career-high for Rice, who also led all players in the game with five assists and chipped in with three steals.
Neither team shot well from the field with the Foresters at 32.1 percent and the Fighting Scots at 30.8. Lake Forest had a 47-38 edge in rebounds but committed 24 of the game's 40 turnovers.
The Foresters scored the game's first five points and kept Monmouth off the scoreboard for nearly the first five minutes of the contest. The Scots, however, scored the next eight points and led the rest of the first half, which ended with home team trailing 27-23.
After falling behind by six early in the second half, the Foresters rattled off seven straight points to take a 30-29 lead. The visitors scored 12 of the next 15 points, however, and led 41-33 with 11 minutes to play. Schmitt scored all eight of her points and Avontds added a pair of baskets during a 13-2 Lake Forest run that made the score 46-43 in favor of the home team with less than seven minutes left. The Foresters extended their lead to five points but three straight baskets by Monmouth gave the visitors a 51-50 advantage with nearly two minutes remaining. Both teams played sound defense over the next minute-and-a-half until the memorable finish.
Lake Forest evened it overall record at 9-9 and improved to 9-5 in Midwest Conference play. Monmouth fell to 7-11 overall and 6-7 in the league.
The Foresters will play their final non-conference game of the regular season next Tuesday night at Illinois Institute of Technology. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
