Austin Stueck and Connor Patterson combined to score 49 points and Milwaukee School of Engineering put the Lakeland College men's basketball team's postseason plans into some question by defeating the Muskies 77-70 Tuesday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

MSOE defeated Lakeland for the second time this season and moved one-half game ahead of the Muskies in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference standings as the regular season winds down. Lakeland (13-10 overall, 9-9 NACC) also now is right on the edge of the cutline for making the six-team NACC Tournament with two regular season games remaining.

The Muskies currently hold sixth place in the NACC standings, half a game ahead of seventh-place Wisconsin Lutheran College. Lakeland will meet WLC on the road next Wednesday in Milwaukee at 7 p.m.

MSOE (12-10 overall, 9-8 NACC) shot 50.9% for the game, making 29 of 57 shots from the field. Stueck and Patterson combined for much of the Raiders' success with 21 makes in 30 attempts, as Stueck finished with 28 points plus 10 rebounds and five assists while Patterson added 21 points.

The Muskies played from behind almost the entire night, trailing for all but one minute, 47 seconds. The deficit was close in the first half, though, when Lakeland came back from being six points down to take a one-point lead on two occasions late in the half before MSOE finished the half with eight straight points to lead 34-27 at halftime.

The visitors continued to stretch their lead for the first 10 minutes of the second half and took their biggest lead at 57-36 on a jumper by Stueck with 10:03 left. The Muskies slowly battled back but couldn't knock the lead below double digits until Mark Gryszkiewicz (Jr.-Sussex, Wis.) hit a three-pointer to make it 66-57 with 3:16 left, and Lakeland never got closer than the final seven-point margin.

The Muskies struggled from the field, making 25 of 64 shots (39.1%). Pat McDonald (Fr.-Port Washington, Wis.) scored 13 points, Brandon James (So.-Rockford, Ill.) scored 12 and both Gryszkiewicz and Tanner Hackl (Sr.-West De Pere, Wis.) added 10 points each, but the foursome combined to make just 15 of 40 shot attempts.

Hackl added 10 rebounds for his ninth double-double this year, while James posted a game-high six assists. MSOE also finished with a 39-30 rebounding advantage, helping offset the Raiders' 15 turnovers compared to eight for Lakeland.