Box Score

Galesburg, Ill. – Lake Forest College had a big game from 3-point range and defeated the Prairie Fire 92-67 in Midwest Conference play on Saturday at Memorial Gym.

The game was tight until the Foresters started to pull away with just under five minutes remaining in the first half.

A 3-point basket by senior Eric Miller (Villa Park, IL, Willowbrook) cut a five point Lake Forest lead to 28-26 at the 4:58 mark.  The Foresters scored nine straight points to push their advantage to 11.  Knox halted the surge briefly when first-year Deandre Weathersby (Chicago, IL, Kenwood Academy) split a pair of free throws before Lake Forest scored on back-to-back possessions and extended the lead to 41-27 with 1:19 before the break.

Senior David Jones (Denver, CO, Colorado Academy/Air Force Academy) converted a traditional 3-point play, but James Stack hit one of his five first half baskets from beyond the arc for LFC.  Weathersby knocked down a jumper before the halftime buzzer and Lake Forest held a 44-32 lead at the break.

Stack made five of his seven 3-point attempts and led everyone with 15 points.  The Foresters went 7-of-15 (47 percent) from long distance and shot 53 percent in the first half.  Knox shot 38.5 percent and drained 3-of-6 from behind the 3-point line while sinking 9-of-12 foul shots.

Lake Forest (7-13, 6-9 MWC) held a 23-11 rebounding edge, including eight offensive boards, and outscored the Prairie Fire 11-1 in second chance points.

The Foresters began the second half with eight unanswered points, six on a pair of 3-pointers, to push the lead to 52-32 with 17:47 left in the game.

Knox (1-18, 0-14 MWC) scored the next five points on a jumper by Weathersby and a 3-point play by sophomore Charlie Harned (Webster Groves, MO, Clayton) to close the gap to 15 about a minute later.  That's as close as the Prairie Fire would get as Lake Forest scored 22 of the next 29 points and led 74-44 with 9:17 to play.

The Foresters connected on 61 percent from the field after halftime and 57 percent overall while finishing the game 13-of-25 (52 percent) from 3-point distance.  Lake Forest attempted just 10 free throws and made five of them.

Stack led all scorers with 18 points on 6-of-8 shooting from downtown.

Knox improved to 46 percent from the field in the second half and wound up at 42 percent while hitting 20-of-28 (71 percent) from the free throw line.  The Prairie Fire also did a better job on the glass by outrebounding LFC 15-11 and allowing just one offensive board over the final 20:00.

Knox did not have a player reach double-figure points.  Weathersby led with nine along with five rebounds and five assists.  Miller and Jones added eight points each.

The Prairie Fire visit rival Monmouth College on Tuesday in a game that begins at 5:30 p.m.

NOTE: Knox and Lake Forest participated in the "Play for the Cure" cancer initiative.  The beneficiary of the funds raised is St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and the day's events raised nearly $200.  The winners of the prize giveaways were:

Men's Team Game Ball - Paul Skrade
Women's Team Game Ball - Tim Sandrock
St. Jude Gift Pack - Beth Welch
St. Jude Gift Pack - Miriam Skrade
M&M's - Tamryn Tills
Half Court Shot Made - Eric Crawford
 
In addition, Pizza House of Galesburg donated the "monster pizza."