The Lake Forest College women's basketball team erased an 11-point second half deficit and then pulled away in overtime on Saturday, defeating visiting Illinois College 88-77.
The Lady Blues jumped out to an 18-6 lead before the Foresters scored the final four point of the opening quarter. A 9-0 run by the home team in the second trimmed the deficit to two but Illinois College took a 34-27 lead into the locker room at halftime.
After falling behind by 11 in the third, Lake Forest went on a 15-2 run to briefly take a 44-42 lead late in the period, which ended with the score tied at 48. The Lady Blues scored the first five points of the fourth and did not trail until a layup by senior forward Annie Lally out the Foresters on top 66-65 with 53.5 seconds remaining. The visitors regained the lead with 21.8 seconds to play but Lake Forest senor guard Katie Neher grabbed an offensive rebound and drew a foul while scoring with 15.5 seconds on the clock. Her free throw, along with another foul shot by freshman guard Taylor Major with 7.1 seconds remaining made it a 70-67 game but a three-pointer by the Blues with 1.3 ticks left forced the overtime period.
After scoring nine points in each of the final two quarters, Lally added six more as the Foresters pulled away in overtime. They held their guests scoreless for the final two-and-a-half minutes to secure what turned out to be an 11-point victory.
Lally shot 12-for-16 from the field and finished with a career-high 31 points. She also grabbed eight rebounds. Neher continued to fill up the stats sheet, scoring 22 points, matching Lally with eight boards, dishing out a career-high nine assists, and adding five steals. Junior guard Maurissa Edwards and freshman guard Taylor Major also reached double figures with 17 and 14 points, respectively, and Major led all players in the contest with nine rebounds.
Lake Forest shot 42 percent from the field in the game while Illinois College was at 49.2 percent. The Foresters outscored the Lady Blues 25-11 from the foul line and out-rebounded them 44-33.
The victory raised the Foresters' overall record to 9-13 and Midwest Conference mark to 5-9. Illinois College fell to 10-13 overall and 7-7 in the league.
Lake Forest will play its final home game of the season against Ripon College Tuesday evening at 5:30.
