The Lake Forest men's basketball team won its fourth consecutive game Saturday and clinched a spot in the Midwest Conference tournament with an 87-79 victory against Illinois College in Jacksonville, Ill.
 
The Foresters (15-7, 10-3 MWC) were fueled by their senior duo of Cristian Rodriguez and Alex Forowycz. The pair are the top two scorers in the Midwest Conference, and both Foresters were on their game Saturday afternoon.
 
Rodriguez scored 29 points and grabbed nine rebounds; he shot 10-of-15 from the field and made all nine of his free-throw attempts.
 
Forowycz was even more efficient, putting up 31 points on 10-of-14 shooting. The Lake Forest, Ill., native was a constant threat at the three-point line, making 5-of-8 attempts from behind the arc.
 
The Foresters shot 52.6 percent from the field for the game – it marked the sixth time in their last seven games that Lake Forest has shot more than 50 percent from the field.
 
Lake Forest also made the most of its trips to the free-throw line; the Foresters made 19 of 20 free-throw attempts, eclipsing 90 percent free-throw shooting for the fifth time this year.
 
The hosts struck first and took an early lead in the opening minutes. Illinois College opened up a 21-9 advantage less than nine minutes into the game before Lake Forest started chipping away at the deficit.
 
The Foresters worked the Blue Boys' lead down to 27-18 before Forowycz caught fire to give Lake Forest momentum going into halftime. In the final 6:01 of the first half, Lake Forest finished on a 20-3 run to take an eight-point lead into the break. During that span, Forowycz scored 14 points on a perfect 5-of-5 shooting, carving up the Illinois College defense inside and out.
 
The Foresters led the entire second half, but had to rebuff multiple Illinois College runs to secure the victory. Lake Forest shot 61.5 percent after halftime and did not miss a single free throw on its 14 attempts.
 
The Foresters will return to Lake Forest for their next game on Tuesday night. Lake Forest will host Lawrence University at the Sports and Recreation Center at 5:30 p.m.