Despite trailing by more than 20 points in the second half to Grinnell College, the Lake Forest men's basketball team battled to take a late lead, but could not pull off the come-from-behind victory Saturday afternoon, falling, 104-99.
 
The Foresters (16-8, 11-4 MWC) had three players over 20 points, led by senior forward Cristian Rodriguez's 23 points and 13 rebounds. Senior Luke Arington scored 21 points and made four three-pointers, and guard Alex Forowycz put up 20 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
 
Guard Alex Brown contributed a little bit of everything with 16 points, seven rebounds, and five assists on 6-of-9 shooting. Lake Forest shot 48.1 percent for the game and 33.3 percent from the three-point line.
 
The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for Lake Forest.
 
The Foresters utilized a massive second-half run to get back into the game after falling behind in the first half. Trailing by 23 points with 14:24 left in the game, Lake Forest turned up the defense and chipped away at the Grinnell advantage.
 
The game changed in its demeanor when Grinnell took a flagrant foul on Rodriguez with 12:03 left and the Foresters already on a 12-3 run. Rodriguez made both free throws, then Brown hit a cutting layup to trim the deficit to 11.
 
Rodriguez then secured a rebound and fired a full-court pass to Arington for a layup and the foul to make it 76-68.
 
Arington hit another triple to cut the margin to five, then his sidestep three off a pump fake brought Lake Forest to within two.
 
After tying the game multiple times, Lake Forest would take its first lead since 3-2 on a floater from Marko Visnjevac to give the hosts a 96-95 advantage with 2:15 remaining. After a Grinnell layup, Rodriguez retook the lead for the Foresters on a floater with 1:24 left.
 
Grinnell would score on their next two possessions to take a three-point lead with 17 seconds left. Rodriguez missed a layup on the Foresters' next possession as Grinnell closed out the game at the free-throw line.
 
Lake Forest scored 60 points after halftime and held Grinnell to 2-of-19 shooting from the three-point line in the second half.
 
On Senior Day, it was Arington that got the Lake Forest offense going in the opening minutes. The senior from Surprise, Ariz., score nine of the first 12 points for Lake Forest by making three of his first four shots.
 
As the opening half went on, the up-tempo, full-court press of Grinnell caused problems for the Foresters offense in the first half. Lake Forest shot just 41 percent from the field, including making just 3-of-15 three-pointers before halftime.
 
The Pioneers forced nine Forester turnovers in the opening half and cashed in 16 points off turnovers, as the visitors went into the break with a 59-39 lead.
 
The Foresters will travel to Monmouth, Ill., for their final game of the regular season on Wednesday. Lake Forest will take on the current Midwest Conference leaders, Monmouth College, at 5:30 p.m.