Continuing their recent struggles, the Lawrence women’s basketball lost at Lake Forest and Illinois Colleges last weekend, stretching their conference losing streak to 57 games.
The Foresters of Lake Forest College (9-8, 7-5 MWC) took a first-half lead and never looked back last Friday night, eventually going on to win 76-48.
Lake Forest went on a 13-0 run midway through the first half to extend their lead to 21-6, then held the Vikings under 10 points until 7:11 was left in the period. The Foresters would extend their first-half lead to as much as 22 points, leading 38-20 at halftime.
The Vikings would trail by as many as 28 points in their 19th consecutive loss. Cathy Kaye scored 15 points to lead the Vikings, while Katie Van Es scored 10 and Nakita Chadwick grabbed a game-high eight boards.
The Vikings then traveled to Jacksonville, Ill. to face the Illinois College Lady Blues Saturday afternoon. Turnover problems hurt the Vikings out of the gate. With the scored tied at 6-6, the Vikings turned the ball over 10 times while only managing to get up two shots over the course of the next 7 minutes. During that stretch, the Lady Blues extended their lead to 16-6, and the Vikings would not seriously challenge them the rest of the way.
Illinois College led the Vikings 29-17 at the break and would go on to lead by as many as 24 points in the second half en route to their 58-36 Midwest Conference victory.
In the losing effort, the Vikings were led by freshman Cory Paquette, who had 10 points and seven rebounds.
With just three games left in a highly disappointing season, the Vikings next hope to secure a road victory against Beloit College Saturday.