APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University women’s basketball team got off to a strong start Wednesday, but Lake Forest College put together a big second quarter and went on to a 61-39 Midwest Conference win at Alexander Gymnasium.
Lawrence led 17-15 after one quarter, but the Foresters scored the first 13 points of the second quarter and pulled away in the second half.
Leah Reeves scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds to pace Lawrence (2-12, 0-9 MWC). Lauren Deveikis added 11 points for the Vikings, and Aubrey Scott had a game-high four assists.
Bridget Bilek led Lake Forest (4-10, 3-6) with 17 points. Kelsey Schmitt added 12 points off the bench, and Brie Majkowski had 12 rebounds to go with eight points.
Lawrence trailed by six early, but the Vikings scored seven consecutive points, including three by Reeves, to grab a 9-8 lead. The game was tied four times after that in the quarter, and Shonell Benjamin’s layup with 15 seconds left gave the Vikings a 17-15 lead after one. It marked just the second time this season Lawrence had led after one quarter.
Seven different players scored for Lake Forest as the Foresters went on a 13-0 run to open the second quarter. Reeves’ layup finally stopped the run, but Lake Forest led 28-19 with 3:02 left in the half. The Foresters pushed the lead back to 12, but Reeves got a layup at the buzzer to trim the margin to 31-21 at the half.
The Vikings jumped on Lake Forest to start the third quarter. Deveikis hit a jumper and Reeves added two more jumpers as part of a 7-0 run that cut the lead to 31-28.
After Deveikis’ 3-pointer cut the lead to 35-31 after in the quarter, the Foresters scored the final 11 points of the third to pull away. Schmitt scored five and Bilek added four during the run to give Lake Forest a 46-31 lead after three quarters.
Lake Forest steadily pulled away from there and led by as many as 24 points in the fourth.