The Lake Forest men's basketball team never trailed Tuesday night against Ripon College at the Sports and Recreation Center in the Coaches vs. Cancer Game, but the game was far from a runaway as the Foresters came away with the 88-81 victory.
 
Much like the first meeting between the two teams on Dec. 19, 2025, a 74-69 Lake Forest victory, the hosts had to hold off a late surge from Ripon. The Red Hawks would get as close as 83-79 with 35 seconds left but the Foresters were nearly automatic from the free-throw line, shooting 21-for-23 (91.3 percent) from the charity stripe for the game.
 
Cristian Rodriguez led all scorers with 24 points and seven rebounds for Lake Forest (12-7, 7-3 MWC). Senior Alex Forowycz battled foul trouble for most of the second half but still scored 18 points and secured a pair of crucial defensive rebounds in the final 15 seconds to help Lake Forest earn the victory.
 
Sophomore Marko Visnjevac scored 14 points on 4-for-5 shooting from three-point range. Visnjevac is now 10-for-12 from three-point range in his last four games combined.
 
Lake Forest shot 54.9 percent from the field overall and made 11-of-19 three-pointers (54.9 percent).
 
Lake Forest got off to a fast start from the opening tip, with the 6-foot-3 Forowycz winning the tip off against 6-foot-7 Ripon forward Kolby Williams.
 
From there, Lake Forest scored the first seven points of the game and jumped out to a 16-4 lead by shooting a sizzling 7-of-9 from the field to open the game.
 
In the first half, the Foresters shot 63.3 percent from the field and were dialed in from three-point range. Four different Foresters contributed from behind the arc, led by Visnjevac's 3-for-3 performance, while freshman Anthony Favia was 2-for-2 from deep in just six minutes of first-half action.
 
The Foresters bookended the opening half with scoring runs, as Lake Forest concluded the first half on a 13-5 run before the Red Hawks hit a buzzer-beating layup to bring the halftime score to 46-34.
 
The Foresters will remain at home for their next contest. Lake Forest will celebrate Alumni Day at the Sports and Recreation Center on Saturday afternoon, as the Foresters host the Rams of Cornell College at 1 p.m.