Lake Forest Falls Short in Midwest Conference Tournament
One-point loss in semifinals ends season

Kandyce Green led the team with 15 points on Friday.

Junior guard Kandyce Green (Chicago, IL/Marian Catholic) led Lake Forest with 15 points and pulled down seven rebounds. The team’s second-leading scorer (13.2 ppg.) on the season also added three assists and as many steals.

Classmate Shannon Clerkin (Barneveld, WI/Barneveld) posted her fifth consecutive double-double with 14 points, 10 boards, and three blocked shots. The forward led the 2003-04 Foresters with 14.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game, a school-record .583 field goal percentage, and 35 blocked shots, the second-highest total in the program’s history.

The Foresters got off to a rough start, trailing 14-4 just over seven minutes into the contest, but a pair of field goals from Green and four points from senior Tangara Cross (Garland, TX/Naaman Forest) cut the Green Knights’ lead to 14-12. Both teams battled through seven ties and five lead changes before Lake Forest took a 35-33 lead into the intermission.

The battle continued throughout the second half as both sides alternated buckets and the lead until the Foresters used a 9-0 run to mount a 62-55 advantage with 6:43 to play. St. Norbert slowly chipped away at the deficit and made a three-pointer with 1:46 remaining to cut Lake Forest’s lead to 65-64. A pair of Forester scoring opportunities were thwarted by turnovers and two clutch free throws gave the Green Knights a 66-65 lead with 23 seconds left. The Foresters’ last chance to pull off the win fell short and St. Norbert advanced to the championship game.

With both sides shooting virtually the same percentage from the field and from the three-point arc, the most glaring statistical difference was from the charity stripe, where Lake Forest made only 11 of 20 attempts while St. Norbert shot 17-for-21.

In addition to Cross, the Foresters will lose two other players to graduation in May. Forward Stephanie Fink (Menasha, WI/St. Mary's Central), who scored four points off the bench against St. Norbert, finished her three-year basketball career with 160 points and 147 rebounds. Guard Sherry Wagner (Chicago, IL/Mother McAuley) concluded her four years with 646 points, 184 assists, and 127 steals. Cross finished with 539 points, 380 rebounds, and is third in school history with 45 blocked shots and a .541 field goal percentage in her career. The trio has helped Lake Forest to four conference tournament appearances, two NCAA Tournament showings, a pair of MWC Championships, and an overall record of 77-23 in the last four years.

By Franklyn Beckford

Box Score