Eric Porter and his teammates from Lake Forest College felt comfortable shooting the ball at Eby Fieldhouse when they practiced in the old gym at Coe on Friday.

Porter came back Saturday and fell in love with the place.

Porter tossed in eleven 3-pointers and poured in 37 points as Lake Forest erased a 17-point deficit and stung Coe, 81-76, in a non-conference game at the ancient facility.

"It just felt good," said Porter, who transferred from Loyola to Lake Forest this year. "We practiced here yesterday. I like the gym. We all think it's a shooter's gym, so we all had confidence and it was just going in for us today."

Porter smashed the Lake Forest school record for most 3-pointers in a single game and his 11 triples are believed to be an arena record as well. He went 11 for 15 from behind the arc, with five 3-pointers in the first half and six more in the second half.

"It was special," said Lake Forest Coach Ken Davis.

Coe point guard Jake Timm, who is one of his team's top defenders, did not play Saturday due to an elbow injury, but Coach Bryan Martin did not want to speculate on what might have happened if Timm had been on the floor to help guard Porter.

"I was proud of the way our guys stepped up in his absence, but certainly we missed him," said Martin.

The Kohawks owned a 69-60 lead coming down the stretch, but Porter drilled his ninth and tenth 3-pointers to pull Lake Forest within 71-69 with 3:30 left in the game and the race was on. Andrew Toth hit a 3-pointer for Lake Forest to forge a 74-74 tie with 1:28 remaining, then Mike Rueffer hit another triple to give the visitors their first lead of the game at 77-74 with 51 seconds to go.

Matt Vonderhaar pulled Coe within 77-76 with a bucket with 39 seconds left, but Porter delivered the dagger with his final 3-pointer for an 80-76 edge with 12 seconds remaining.

Porter was averaging a modest 9.1 points per game heading into Saturday's contest and was only 9 for 27 on 3-pointers for 33.3 percent, but he was 11 of 15 from long range against the Kohawks.

"I'm just kind of happy we got the win, to be honest," he remarked. "It wasn't really about the baskets. They were just going down. My teammates found me. We just needed a road win, so now I'm really happy."

Most of Porter's 3-pointers hit nothing but net.

"He was really good," said Martin. "We definitely had him identified as a shooter, but he's not one of their main scorers. If you had told me that we'd hold No. 20 (Jim Schick) and No. 32 (Danny Sotos) to a collective 12 points, I would have told you we're walking away with this game and going into Christmas feeling pretty good about ourselves.

"We did not adjust very well," said Martin. "He just got into one of those zones. You have to give credit to him and Lake Forest for their fight and finding a way to win it down the stretch."

Vonderhaar and Marshall Shedeck scored 18 points apiece for Coe (5-4). Matt Meyer had 14 points. Trevor Haaland, who moved to point guard in Timm's absence, finished with 10 points and 10 assists.

Lake Forest squared its record at 4-4.

LAKE FOREST (81): Schick 3 2-2 8, Brown 4 1-1 9, Sotos 2 0-0 4, Porter 12 2-4 37, Rueffer 5 2-3 14, Hunnicutt 0 0-0 0, Janer 0 0-0 0, Moran 0 0-0 0, Toth 3 0-0 7, Flaum 0 0-0 0, Bauchan 0 2-4 2. Totals 29 9-14 81.

COE (76): Vonderhaar 7 0-0 18, Meyer 4 5-6 14, Shedeck 7 2-6 18, Haaland 4 0-0 10, Vorba 2 0-0 6, Jirak 0 0-0 0, Pflughaupt 0 0-0 0, Wadsager 0 0-0 0, Fahey 3 0-0 6, Williams 1 2-2 4. Totals 28 9-14 76.

Halftime - Coe 43, Lake Forest 32. 3-point goals - Lake Forest 14 (Porter 11, Rueffer 2, Toth 1), Coe 11 (Vonderhaar 4, Shedeck 2, Haaland 2, Vorba 2, Meyer 1).