Lake Forest, IL – The Dominican University women's basketball team lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds as they fell to the Lake Forest Foresters 82-80 on Tuesday night.
 
Alisha Markley led a potent offensive attack with 24 points (8-of-16) while Hannah Currant had 19 on an efficient 8-of-12 shooting from the field. Stephenee Huggans had 13 to go along with six dimes while freshman Brianna Andresen had the best game of her young collegiate career with 10 points, after going 4-of-5 from the floor.
 
The Stars fell behind early, 13-6, but Kamyrn Woods capped off a 13-4 run to tie the game at 17-17 with 2:27 remaining in the opening quarter. A Foresters layup with just over a minute left gave the home team a slim 21-19 edge after one quarter of play.
 
Back-to-back triples from Andresen gave Dominican its first lead since 6-5 at 31-30 but the score remained knotted at 36-36 with 3:32 until the break. Lake Forest closed the half strong however as a mini 7-1 spurt gave them a five-point lead after 20 minutes of play.
 
Lake Forest's lead extended to eight, 52-44, with less than four minutes to go in the third but Dominican's offense started to come alive as it closed the session on a 13-6 run, in a 20-point quarter, to trail by just one heading into the fourth.
 
A pair of Markley jumpers broke a 63-63 tie 3:30 into the stanza before the Foresters found themselves leading by four, 73-69 with 2:58 to go. The deficit was still five with just over a minute left but a Markley make from long range cut it to 76-74 with 53 seconds on the clock. After the teams traded a pair of free throws, 78-76, the Stars had to play the foul game with 16 seconds left.
 
Lake Forest would make one of two and then decided to foul Huggans with seven seconds left. She would make her two free throws, 79-78, which put the pressure back on Foresters who this time made both freebies to set up one last look for the Stars, trailing 81-78 with six seconds left. After a timeout advanced the ball to mid-court, Dominican got the look they wanted in the corner where the Foresters inexplicitly fouled the Stars shooter. After making the first two of three to make it a one-point game, 81-80, the third attempt hit the front rim and Lake Forest grabbed the rebound and made a subsequent free throw to escape with an 82-80 victory.
 
"I'm so proud of this team's effort and resilience," said Head Coach Antonio Rivas. "They battled hard and truly fought to the end. We didn't play a perfect game, but that was about as perfect of an effort as I could ask for."
 
The Stars shot 45.5% (30-of-66) for the game as they reached the 80-point plateau for the first time this season.
 
"One thing this team does is bounce back which I'm proud to say as the head coach of this group." continued Rivas. "We will regroup and prepare for a pair of important games this weekend."

Dominican will play its long-awaited home opener this Friday, February 26^th when it hosts Concordia Chicago at 5:00 p.m.