Lake Forest College Sports Information
February 27th, 2002
Contact: Mike Wajerski, SID

Foresters Fall in Opening Round of NCAA Tournament 
Team makes third straight trip to the tourney
  

Jenni Klusman finished her Forester career on Wednesday.
STEVENS POINT, WI - For the third year in a row the Lake Forest College women's basketball team won the Midwest Conference Championship and advanced to the NCAA Championship Tournament. Unfortunately for the Foresters, the end result was also the same as it was the last two seasons - an opening round loss. UW-Stevens Point hosted and defeated Lake Forest on Wednesday (February 27th) by a score of 88-52. The Pointers will advance to play four-time defending NCAA Division III Champion Washington University (MO) on Saturday (March 2nd).

As she did in both MWC Championship Tournament games, Katie McCants (Menasha, WI/Menasha) led the team in scoring again on Wednesday. The junior forward scored nine points, connecting on three of seven field goal attempts and three of four shots from the free throw line. McCants shot a combined 36-of-38 from the line in the last seven games of the year.

Playing in her last game as a Forester was Jenni Klusman (New Berlin, WI/New Berlin West), who knocked down a pair of three-point shots to account for her six points in the game. The 5'3" senior guard is a four-year letterwinner and two-year starter for the squad. She was a captain this season and earned First Team All-Midwest Conference honors for the first time in her career.

Also finishing their Forester careers were guard Nikki Thompson (Gurnee, IL/Warren Township) and forward Katie Kerrigan (Libertyville, IL/Libertyville). Lake Forest's record since the senior trio joined the team is 80-19.

While the Foresters struggled Wednesday, shooting just 32.7% from the floor and 30% from three-point range, the Pointers had one of their best shooting games of the year. Stevens Point made 52.5% of its shots from the field and 57.1% from beyond the arc. While rebounds were nearly even (SP 38, LFC 34), the Foresters committed 28 turnovers, 10 more than the home team.

A 9-0 Stevens Point run early in the first half gave the Pointers a 13-point lead (22-9). Lake Forest scored seven straight points to cut the margin to six (22-16) but they would get no closer the rest of the game. A 12-2 run by Stevens Point late in the half took the lead up to 19 points and the halftime score was 43-25.

The visitors trimmed the difference to 14 points (50-36) with 15:36 to play but the Pointers shot 56.7% from the floor in the second half to end any hopes of a Forester comeback.

Lake Forest's season ends with a 19-7 overall record. While the Foresters fell just short of a fifth straight 20-win campaign, they were at least ten games over .500 for the seventh year in a row and had a winning record for the 15th consecutive season.

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