The Monmouth College men’s basketball team dropped the Midwest Conference opener 94-85 at Lake Forest on Tuesday night. The Scots return to action Saturday afternoon at home against Beloit College.
Jonathan Oradiegwu (Richmond, Texas) got the Scots on the board with a 3-pointer 41 seconds into the game and Amyas Njoku (Los Angeles, California) buried a 3-pointer of his own for a 6-2 Scots lead. The Scots lead 12-10 when Jordan Metcalf (Aledo, Illinois) scored at the 13:42 mark before the Foresters went on a 5-0 run.
Brian Greenman (Alpha, Illinois) hit a 3-pointer for a 17-15 Scots lead and the game was tied at 22 with 9:42 left after Metcalf completed a 3-point play. Lake Forest scored six in a row before the Scots tied the game at 28. A 7-0 run by Lake Forest put the hosts on top 35-28 and they pushed the lead to double digits at 42-32 with 1:48 left. Monmouth scored the final five points of the half to go into the locker room down 44-37.
The Foresters hit a 3-pointer early in the second half and again pushed the lead to 12. Four points from Metcalf and a layup from Kendall Brasfield (Chicago, Illinois) cut the lead to 49-45. Monmouth eventually got to within three but the lead went back to double digits with 10:00 to play.
In the final six minutes the closest the Scots got was six at 81-75 on a layup by Yuvraj Sidhu (Coppell, Texas). Lake Forest made their final eight free throws to push the lead back into double digits before a layup from Oradiegwu with 10 seconds left put the final score at 94-85.
Oradiegwu led the Scots with a career-high 30 points on 11-of-16 shooting. He also had nine rebounds while Metcalf had a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double. Brasfield and Njoku both had 14 points as the Scots put four in double digits.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: The Scots made their first two 3-pointers but were 5-of-25 on the night. Monmouth made 14-of-18 from the free throw line. The Scots had just six assists on 33 field goals. Monmouth had 56 points in the paint and 18 second-chance points with 14 offensive rebounds. The Scots are 4-6 in their last 10 visits to Lake Forest and 9-11 against the Foresters in the last 20 meetings overall. The game had five lead changes and six ties. Monmouth will host Beloit College at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
***Report Courtesy of Nathan Baliva, Monmouth College***
