2001-02 Season Ends With Defeat to Grinnell
McDonald scores 39 in the loss
  

Mark Campbell scored a season-high 16 points.

Lake Forest's Eric McDonald (Elk Grove, IL/Elk Grove) shot 17-of-21 from the field, scored a game-high 39 points, and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. In two games this season against Grinnell, McDonald scored 89 points, made 37 of 43 field goal attempts (86.0%), and added 24 rebounds. The freshman forward led the team in scoring this season with 16.0 points per game. He also finished tied-for-fifth in the MWC in scoring (18.1 ppg), 14th in rebounding (5.9 rpg) and second in field goal percentage (61.0%) in league games.

Freshman guard Mark Campbell (Indianola, IA/Indianola) had scored a total of 14 points all season before Saturday, but more than matched that number with 16 against the Pioneers. Campbell shot 4-of-6 from three-point range and made a couple of free throws to become the team's second-leading scorer on the day.

For the second straight game, junior guard Lee Taylor (Sheldon, IA/Sheldon) narrowly missed reaching double figures in points, rebounds and assists. Taylor scored 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the field and added 10 rebounds and eight assists. A week earlier, Taylor came within a single assist of the elusive "triple-double" and in the first meeting with Grinnell, he was one rebound shy of the mark.

The Foresters' 28 turnovers (16 in the second half) proved to be their downfall. The home team shot 56.7% from the field, but an uncharacteristically low 27.8% (5-of-18) from beyond the three-point arc. Lake Forest out-rebounded Grinnell 46-34 and held the visitors to 13 points below their scoring average in conference games.

After giving up the day's first 10 points, the Foresters battled back and tied the game at 26 with approximately eight minutes to play in the first half. Both teams went on scoring runs in the final few minutes of the period, which ended with the home team ahead by one (48-47).

Lake Forest led by as many as six points early in the second half but by just one (73-72) following a traditional three-point play by McDonald with 10:28 to go in the game. Unfortunately for Forester fans, that would be the last time their squad would possess the lead as Grinnell scored 16 consecutive points over the next three-plus minutes to take the lead and put the game out of reach. Another McDonald three-point play would trim the lead to 11 with just less than four minutes to play but the home team would get no closer.

The Foresters finished the season with an overall record of 9-14 and a 6-10 mark in the MWC. They will graduate three starters in May, guards Brian Bruha (Hillsboro, WI/Hillsboro) and Bryan Bertola (Green Bay, WI/Bay Port) and forward Tyler Tofson (Wisconsin Dells, WI/Wisconsin Dells). All three finished the 2001-02 season listed among the conference's most accurate three-point shooters. Tofson more than tripled his career scoring total during the season. Bruha has been a four-year starter for the squad and, at 5'10", has still managed to pull down an average of 5.5 rebounds per game over the course of his career. Bertola led the nation in three-point field goal percentage (52.8%) as a junior and finished his career with 169 made three-pointers and a percentage of 45.6%.

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