Lake Forest College Men's Basketball
News & Notes
January 31, 2000 
Contact:  Scott Rucker, SID

LAKE FOREST COLLEGE MEN'S BASKETBALL WEEKLY UPDATE:
FORESTERS TO PUT 10-0 MWC MARK ON THE LINE THIS WEEK

Lawrence, Carroll Rematches on Tap This Week.Lake Forest will take their perfect 10-0 Midwest Conference record to the state of Wisconsin twice this week. The Foresters will travel to Appleton, WI to face Lawrence University on Tuesday at 8:00 pm before making the trip to Waukesha, WI on Friday to tackle Carroll College. 

Quoting Coach Conger."Both games this week will be difficult tests for our team. We beat both Lawrence and Carroll at our place and I'm sure they'll be looking to extract some revenge in their gym. But we've proven we can win on the road. The remainder of the season we'll strive to stay focused on our pre-season goals and continue to improve each day. We're treating the final six regular season games as a six-game mini-season where everyone is even."

Streaking Foresters.Since starting the season 0-3, the Foresters have won 11 of their last 13 games, including winning streaks of two, three, and their current six game winning streak. 

Scouting Lawrence.Since losing to the Foresters, 71-60, on January 15th and Illinois College on the 22nd, the Vikings have rattled off three straight wins to propel them back into the hunt for an MWC Championship Tournament playoff spot. Junior Adam Lavoy leads the team in scoring with 19.9 points per game, while Nate Leverance, who recently cracked the starting line-up, adds 12.9 ppg.  Mark Conard, the only Viking to start all 16 of their games, leads the team in rebounding with 6.8 boards per contest and also adds 9.1 ppg. Lawrence is 8-8 overall and 5-5 in the MWC, but boasts of a 5-1 home record.

Scouting Carroll.Friday's game will mark the second consecutive Friday in which the Foresters and Pioneers have played. Carroll has come closer than any other MWC team to beating the Foresters. In their previous contest, senior Will Davis, the conference's leading scorer, hit his average with 20 points. Senior Ben Starck, second in the MWC to J.R. Jurecko (Libertyville, IL/Libertyville H.S.) in rebounding, had a game-high 12 rebounds and added 10 points. Carroll is 7-10 overall and 5-6 in the MWC. The Pioneers sit in seventh place in the league, with St. Norbert, Lawerence, and Monmouth each one game ahead at 5-5. Carroll is idle until this weekend when they will host Lake Forest on Friday and Illinois College on Saturday in two key games for the Pioneers.

Lead Widens for LF.Lake Forest's narrow win on Friday and Knox's convincing, 82-63, win over Ripon, gave the Foresters a three-game lead over both teams in the MWC. Knox and Ripon are tied with 6-3 marks. Lake Forest win play both those teams once before the regular season is over. Three teams - St. Norbert, Lawrence, and Monmouth - are tied for fourth with 5-5 records. The top four team will advance to the conference tournament on February 25-26 at the home arena of the regular season champion. This year's regular season champion will be deemed the 2000 MWC Champion, while the winner of the four-team MWC Championship Tournament will earn the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament. 

Watching the MWC Leaderboard.Despite holding a three-game lead on first place in the conference, not one Forester appears in the league's top 20 scorers. Fred Bell (Mequon, WI/Homestead H.S.) is 22nd with 12.1 ppg, Brian Bruha (Hillsboro, WI/Hillsboro H.S.) is 25th (11.9), and J.R. Jurecko (Libertyville, IL/Libertyville H.S.) ranks 26th (11.6). Jurecko is leading the league with 8.1 rebounds per game, while Bell ranks in the league's top 11 for free throw percentage (2nd at 91.3%) and field goal percentage (11th at 56.7%). Lake Forest has two players who appear in the top seven for assists average. Lee Taylor (Sheldon, IA/Sheldon H.S.) and Bruha are tied for seventh with 3.2 per game.

Foresters Pick Up Two More W's Last Week.The scores were closer, but the results the same. In their two closest MWC games of the season, Lake Forest pulled off two victories. On Tuesday (Jan. 25), the Foresters defeated St. Norbert, 58-52, in DePere, WI. Freshman Lee Taylor (Sheldon, IA/Sheldon H.S.) paced LF with 17 points, including 13 in the first half. Taylor also had 6 rebounds and 3 steals. Fellow freshman Fred Bell (Mequon, WI/Homestead H.S.) chipped in 12 points and J.R. Jurecko (Libertyville, IL/Libertyville H.S.) added 10 points. On Friday at home versus Carroll, the Foresters got a career-high 31 points from Jurecko, including both ends of a one-and-one free throw situation with 9 seconds to go in the contest. He also had a team-high 11 rebounds. Sophomore Brian Bruha (Hillsboro, WI/Hillsboro H.S.) contributed 11 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.