LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Lawrence University men’s basketball team enjoyed a great shooting night and held off Lake Forest College 69-67 in a Midwest Conference game on Tuesday.
Jamie Nikitas paced Lawrence with 24 points as he hit 9-of-16 shots from the floor. Junior forward Mitch Willer, who missed the last game due to injury, came back with a vengeance and hit 8-of-9 shots from the floor on his way to 17 points for the Vikings (7-10, 4-8 MWC).
Jim Schick led four Lake Forest players in double figures with 16 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Lake Forest (9-7, 7-5) lost despite a 42-22 rebounding edge.
Lawrence was hot in the first half and hit 17-of-24 shots (70.8 percent) from the floor in building a 12-point edge late in the first half. The Vikings, who shot 55.3 percent for the game, led 40-32 at the break.
The Vikings pushed the lead to 48-35 on Nikitas’ layup early in the second half. Lake Forest steadily chipped away at the advantage and got the margin down to three points inside of two minutes to play.
The Vikings led 65-62 but had a pair of turnovers on its next two possessions. Lake Forest finally cashed in on Eric Porter’s layup with just over a minute left to cut the margin to 65-64.
After a Pete Winslow free throw pushed the margin back to 66-64, the Vikings came up with some big defensive plays. Lawrence forced Mike Rueffer into a traveling violation, and Nikitas was then fouled. He hit one free throw to give Lawrence a 67-64 lead.
After a missed 3-pointer by the Foresters, Nikitas was fouled again but missed the front end of the bonus. Lawrence got the ball right back as Troy Miller stole the ball from Porter with 14 seconds left.
Miller was fouled and made one free throw for a 68-64 edge with 9.2 seconds left. Porter then banked in a long 3-pointer to cut the margin to 68-67, and Nikitas was fouled on the ensuing possession with 2.4 seconds left. He made the first foul shot for a 69-67 edge.
Nikitas missed the second free throw, but the Foresters were unable to get off a desperation shot before time expired.
Lawrence trailed 10-8, but the Vikings took command of the first half with some seriously hot shooting. The Vikings made 9-of-10 shots from the floor during one stretch to turn a two-point deficit into a nine-point lead at 33-24.
Lawrence hit 13-of-14 shots from inside the arc in the first half as Nikitas scored 13 points and Willer added 10 in the opening 20 minutes.