LAKE FOREST, Ill. -- The Lawrence University men's basketball team dropped a tight 79-77 Midwest Conference decision at Lake Forest College on Wednesday.
    Lake Forest hit a short fadeway jumper with less than a second remaining to break a tie, and the Vikings were unable to get a shot off before the buzzer sounds.
    All five Lawrence starters scored in double figures, and the Vikings were led by Brad Sendell, who finished with 19 points. Adnan Sarancic added 19 points for the Vikings and was one rebound short of a double-double with a team-best nine rebounds.
    Elliot Jung added 13 points and five rebounds for the Vikings (9-12, 6-6 MWC), and Brandon Danowski and Matthew Kaznikov had 12 points apiece. 
     Sean Espinosa led Lake Forest (9-13, 8-5) with 26 points.
    Lawrence led for large portions of the game before Lake Forest scored seven consecutive points to take a 75-69 lead with 2:28 remaining. Kaznikov stopped the run when he drained a 3-pointer to slice the lead in half to 75-72.
    The Vikings forced three misses on Lake Forest's next trip down the floor, but the Foresters got three offensive rebounds before cashing in with Val Oplchenski's layup for a 77-72 advantage.
    Sendell made one free throw, and after an Espinosa miss, Jung scored in the lane to cut the lead to 77-75 with 46 seconds left. Lake Forest went back to Espinosa, but his miss was rebounded by Sarancic. 
    Sendell drove the lane and was fouled with nine seconds left. He drained both free throws to tie the game at 77-77.
    After a timeout, Lake Forest got the ball to Johnny Roeser in the lane, who hit a short jumper to win it.
    The teams swapped the lead early as the Vikings built a six-point edge at 10-4, but Lake Forest rallied to go up 19-13. Lawrence took the lead back at 22-21 and led by as many as five before Lake Forest cut the advantage to 34-33 at the half.
    The game was tied 46-46 when the Vikings got consecutive 3-pointers from Jung, Sarancic and Kaznikov to grab a 55-46 advantage with 11:30 remaining. The Vikings held the lead until 3:59 remained in the contest.
    Lawrence returns to action on Saturday when the Vikings travel to Cornell College.