The Lakeland College men's basketball team ran out to a 24-point lead and then withstood a late charge by Milwaukee School of Engineering for an 88-77 win Tuesday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Muskies won their third straight game and improved to 8-1 overall, including 5-1 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Lakeland's nine-game mark is tied for the best in school history, tied only by the 1966-67 and 1967-68 teams that also both started 8-1.

The Muskies took control of the game with a big first half, scoring 50 points in the first 20 minutes on the way to a 50-35 halftime lead. Lakeland also started fast in the second half and took its largest lead of the game when Travis Kell (So.-Madison, Wis.) converted a three-point play to make it 70-46 with 11:28 left.

MSOE (5-6 overall, 2-4 NACC) did not go quietly, and a 17-3 run reduced the margin to single digits at 78-69 with 3:32 left. The Raiders actually got as close as seven with 1:24 to play, but Lakeland converted eight straight free throws in the final 1:07 to salt it away.

Joey Burris (Sr.-Kiel, Wis.) finished with 18 points and is now 17 points from becoming the 40th player in the school's men's basketball history to score 1,000 points. Kell also added 16 points, including 11 in the game's first 10 minutes, and Derick Denny (Sr.-Oneida, Wis.) also scored 15 on the strength of five three-pointers.

Kurt Jansen (Sr.-Wrightstown, Wis.) added nine points and also played excellent defense on MSOE leading scorer Austin Stueck, who was quiet much of the night before catching fire late and finishing with 24 points on 8 of 20 shooting.

Lakeland shot 45.9% for the game (28 of 61), including 51.4% in the first half with 18 makes in 35 attempts. The Muskies also were 26 of 32 from the free throw line (81.3%) and committed just eight turnovers, seven more than the Raiders.

Lakeland is home again Thursday night when it faces Concordia University Chicago at 7 p.m. at the Woltzen Gym as part of a women's/men's NACC doubleheader.