The Lakeland University men's basketball team fell behind early and never could come back in an 86-66 loss to the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Wednesday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Eagles never trailed in the game, keeping the Muskies in trail mode the entire night in winning their season opener. Lakeland lost its second straight home non-conference game to start the season.

UW-La Crosse-the defending Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season champions-prevailed in a rough and ragged game that included 56 fouls and a total of 67 free throws. The Eagles shot 50% from the field (26 of 52) and also hit 30 of 40 free throw attempts (75.0%), besting Lakeland in both areas. UW-L also won the rebounding battle 38-28, took advantage of 21 Lakeland turnovers and got 35 points from its bench in the win.

The Muskies fell behind by 13 points in the first half but battled back within three at 24-21 after a layup by Joshuan McNeal (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) with 7:31 left in the half. UW-La Crosse slowly built the lead back up, though, and took a 44-32 lead into halftime.

The guests then started the second half with a 15-2 run in the first four minutes to take their biggest lead of the game at 59-34. Lakeland was able to whittle the lead back down to 14 on two occasions, the last time after a Brandon James (Jr.-Rockford, Ill.) layup with 4:09 left.

James led the Muskies with 19 points, 16 coming in the first half. Pat McDonald (So.-Port Washington, Wis.) added 13 points and McNeal chipped in nine off the bench. Eric Nygaard (Jr.-Plymouth, Wis.) finished with seven points and a team-best eight rebounds.

Lakeland shot 45.8% for the game, hitting 22 of 48 field goals, and also made 17 of 27 free throws (63.0%). The Muskies also committed 21 turnovers which UW-L turned into 28 points.

Lakeland next opens its Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference on Tuesday when it faces Milwaukee School of Engineering at 7 p.m. at the Woltzen Gymnasium.