Lake Forest College Women's Basketball News & Notes December 1, 1999  Contact:  Scott Rucker, SID LAKE FOREST WINS MIDWEST CONFERENCE SEASON OPENER      On the first night of competition for Midwest Conference women's basketball teams, Lake Forest College (4-0, 1-0) raced out to a 32-16 lead and held on for an 83-71 victory over visiting Monmouth (IL) College (2-3, 0-1) on Wednesday evening. Monmouth cut the Foresters lead to 7 points at 41-34 at halftime before Lake Forest stretched their lead to as many as 12 points in the second half. The Scots trimmed the margin to 72-66 with 3:01 remaining. A basket by freshman Katie McCants (Menasha, WI/Menasha H.S.) and a three-point play by Melissa Schneider (Arlington Heights, IL/John Hersey H.S.), both assisted by Alison Grubbs (Cullom, IL/Tri-Point H.S.), gave the Foresters a more comfortable 11-point margin. Lake Forest made their final five free throws to secure the victory.      The win was Lake Forest's 44th win in their last 51 games. The Foresters won the Midwest Conference regular season title in 1998-99.        Grubbs led a balanced attack with 16 points. Five other Foresters scored at least 8 points. Junior Karla Gribble (Mineral Point, WI/Mineral Point H.S.) had 15 points, sophomore Kim Magee (Lake Oswego, OR/Lake Oswego H.S.) 11, McCants added 10, and Jenni Klusman (New Berlin, WI/New Berlin West H.S.) and Schneider chipped in 9 and 8 points, respectively. Lake Forest also used a 47-30 rebounding advantage to help them to the win.      Erin Bradshaw led Monmouth with 23 points and Melissa Jones added 10 points.      Lake Forest will host Illinois College as the first half of a men/women double header on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Illinois College is the last team to beat the Foresters. They upset LF in the semifinals of last year's MWC Championship Tournament.