Pioneers End Season with Loss to Lake Forest

The Grinnell College men's basketball team grinded it out the entire way, but just couldn't get the big shot to fall, as they dropped a 94-79 contest to Lake Forest in the semifinal round of the Midwest Conference Tournament on Friday night.

The Pioneers, playing in front of hostile home crowd, jumped out to leads of 2-0 and 4-3, but didn't hold another advantage the rest of the half as Lake Forest held onto a slim 37-35 halftime lead. Despite Grinnell shooting 45.2 percent for the half, the Foresters held the Pioneers to only 3-of-10 shooting from long range.

A three-pointer just nine seconds into the second half gave the Pioneers a 38-37 lead, but Lake Forest responded with a Brad Wehner lay-up to regain the lead at 39-38. The team never looked back, as it held a double-digit lead for the final nine minutes of the contest.

David Arseneault '09 scored 13 of his 17 points in the first-half to lead the Pioneers, as Doug Ticus followed with 16. Keith Chamberlain '08 chipped in with 13 points, while R.J. Roewe '09 and Bobby Long '08 added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Chamberlain and Sean Pfalzer '07 hauled in five rebounds each, while Arseneault dished out seven assists to go along with four steals. His seven assists, set a new school single-season record of 203.

The Pioneers finished the contest shooting 43.3 percent from the field, but connected on just 6-of-28 from downtown, and only 15-of-32 from the free throw line.

The Foresters shot 69.6 percent in each half, and went 25-of-36 at the charity stripe in the second-half, to clinch the win.

Patrick Hanley shot 10-of-13 from the floor, en route to scoring a game-high 25 points, while hauling in nine rebounds, and dishing out a game-high eight assists. Laird Walker recorded a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds, as Victor Campbell went 10-of-12 from the free throw line to finish with 16 points.

After scoring just 65 points against the Pioneers two weeks ago, the Foresters returned the favor by holding Grinnell to a season-low 79 points; matching the exact point-total they allowed when they squeaked by the Pioneers 80-79 earlier this season.

Grinnell closes out its solid season at 17-7 overall (13-4 MWC), as the game also marked the final contest in a Pioneer uniform for Ticus, Pfalzer, Trek Langenhan, David Rein, and Max Brauer.

Lake Forest will face Carroll in the Tournament Championship on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. The Pioneers defeated Ripon 92-79 in the earlier semifinal contest.

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