Trailing 67-47 early in the second half, the Lake Forest College men's basketball team came back and defeated North Central College 92-87 at the Loras Holiday Classic on Monday.

The margin was still 16 points with just six minutes to play but the Foresters outscored the Cardinals 28-7 the rest of the way. A 10-0 run over the next three minutes cut North Central's lead to six and, after a pair of Cardinal free throws, Lake Forest senior forward Cristian Rodriguez turned in a traditional three-point play and senior wing Alex Forowicz made a pair of layups to make it a one-point game.

North Central was unable to get the ball to midcourt in time, giving the Foresters the ball again with 1:41 left. Junior wing Coltrane Marchand was then fouled and his free throws with 1:16 remaining gave Lake Forest the lead. After another Cardinal turnover, their fourth in as many possessions, senior wing Luke Arington was fouled shooting a three-pointer and he knocked down all three free throws to finish off a 22-2 run and make the score 86-82 with 50.6 seconds on the clock.

North Central's comeback attempt in the final minute was foiled by Marchand hitting two free throws with 38.6 second left, freshman guard Anthony Favia with 15.4 seconds to play, and Arington with with just 5.5 seconds remaining. The Foresters were 22-for-24 at the foul line in the second half after making their only attempt in the first.

After scoring just two points in the first half, Forowycz connected four times from beyond the arc in the second and finished with a game-high 22. Rodriguez was nect with 20 points and added 11 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Arington was the only other Forester in double figures with 11 points and he matched Marchand with a team-high four assists. Senior guard Alex Brown led the team's defensive effort with three steals 

Lake Forest shot a season-high 55.6 percent from the field while North Central was at just 46.8 percent. The teams were nearly even in the rest of the statistical categories with the Cardinals having a slight 10-9 edge in three-pointers and 31-30 advantage on the boards. Both teams committed a dozen turnovers and the Foresters outscored their opponent 23-19 at the line.

The victory evened Lake Forest's record on the season at 5-5 while North Central fell to 4-7.

The Foresters will take on Loras Tuesday afternoon at 4:00.