Green Knights Find a Way Past Foresters

From Asst. AD/Athletics Communications, February 13, 2018 | Men's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

LAKE FOREST, Ill. - St. Norbert College repelled every Lake Forest College thrust and went on to stake a hard-fought 78-68 Midwest Conference win at the LFC Sports Center.

The Green Knights (18-6, 13-4 MWC) remained in tie for second place in the MWC standings with Ripon College, both of which trail Monmouth College by one game with one regular-season game remaining.

St. Norbert and Lake Forest ebbed back and forth in the first 10 minutes before the Foresters pulled ahead 24-19 with 6:07 left in the first half on an Eric Porter layup. The Green Knights then countered with an impressive 15-1 run. Joe Ciriacks got things started with a 3-pointer, while Lake Forest's Chad Bauchan split a pair of free throws on the next possession to lead 25-22 with 5:33 left.

Ciriacks canned another triple at the 4:50 mark to knot the score 25-25. Connor Curtis then scored seven of the next nine points, getting two hoops followed by a Taylor Penn basket. Curtis then drained a 3-pointer for a 34-25 lead with 1:46 left. St. Norbert led 36-29 at halftime.

St. Norbert found itself leading 55-44 with 9:54 remaining after a Mitchell Reinthaler 3-pointer. Lake Forest went on an 11-3 run over the next 3:55 to trail 58-55, but Wade Geenen's 3-pointer put St. Norbert up six with 4:50 to go. The Foresters cut it to 61-58 with 4:06 left but Reinthaler canned another 3-pointer on the next possession and the Foresters would get no closer than six points the rest of the way. Reinthaler made all eight of his free-throw attempts in the final 1:25 of the game to seal the win.

Reinthaler would score 24 of his career-high 26 points in the second half. Geenen scored a career-high 22 points, with 14 coming in the first half. The Green Knights shot 55.1 percent (27-for-49) and 11-for-19 (57.9 percent) from beyond the three-point arc.

Lake Forest shot 40.3 percent (25-for-62) from the floor. Sean Espinosa and Aram Arslanian had 14 points apiece for the Foresters.