The Lake Forest College men’s basketball team hit its final four shots from the floor in overtime and posted a 66-58 Midwest Conference victory over Lawrence University on Friday night at Alexander Gymnasium.
Travis Clark scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Lake Forest (17-2, 13-1 MWC). Jeff Beck and James Stack added 12 points apiece.
Tyler Crisman scored 16 of his team-high 18 points for Lawrence (7-11, 6-8) in the first half. Chris Siebert added 15 points for the Vikings and Ryan DePouw had 10.
Lake Forest got a jumper from Nate Bateman and a layup from Drew Grennell to take a 58-54 lead early in the overtime. After a pair of free throws from Crisman, Lake Forest scored the game’s next six points, including a three-point play from Stack, to take a 64-56 lead with 1:35 left.
Siebert then hit a pair of free throws to trim the margin to 64-58 with 1:10 remaining, but that’s as close as the Vikings would get.
Lawrence led by as many as nine in the first half, and Lake Forest rallied to lead by as many as four points after the break. The game was tied at 50-50 when DePouw hit a jumper with 3:01 left to put Lawrence up by two.
Clark countered with a layup to tie it for the Foresters, but Siebert drained two free throws with 1:21 left to give Lawrence a 54-52 lead. Clark scored on another layup with 1:08 left to tie it at 54-54, but neither team could score after that.
The Vikings turned the ball over, and Lake Forest missed three tap-ins in the final seconds to force the overtime.
Lawrence returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Illinois College.