The Lakeland College women's basketball team removed all suspense about its postseason fate, beating Wisconsin Lutheran College to the finish line by a nose for a 48-47 win Tuesday night in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game.

With the win, the Muskies wrapped up the sixth and final spot in the NACC Tournament and now have a chance to even play themselves one spot higher in the standings. Lakeland's regular season finale on Saturday against Benedictine (Ill.) University will be for the fifth seed in the conference tourney, with the teams entering with matching 12-7 league marks.

The Muskies (13-11 overall) never trailed but had to fight off repeated challenges from the Warriors. Lakeland held separate double-digit leads in all four quarters, including a 13-point margin late in the third quarter, but still had to hold on by the slimmest of margins at the end.

The Muskies outscored WLC 13-2 in the third quarter to take their largest lead at 44-31, but Wisconsin Lutheran (17-7 overall, 15-4 NACC) scored the first 11 points of the fourth period to close within 44-42. Lakeland came back with the next four points, including two free throws from Lexie Greenheck (Sr.-Oostburg, Wis.) and a layup by Bailey Grayvold (Jr.-Norway, Mich.), the latter coming with 6:17 left to make it 48-42.

Lakeland would not score again the rest of the way, but the Warriors would also struggle to get closer. Caitlin Knueppel drained a three-pointer with 2:47 remaining to make it 48-45, and Taylor Bahr scored inside with 48 seconds left to cut the Muskies' lead to one. WLC would get one more possession after rebounding a Muskies' miss with 22 seconds left, but would not even get a shot off as Trista Barron (Sr.-Escanaba, Mich.) stole the ball from Bahr just before the buzzer sounded.

Rachel Stankevich (So.-Goodman, Wis.) finished with 10 points to lead Lakeland, while Grayvold added nine points. The Muskies shot 34.5% (19 of 55), including just 4 of 20 from three-point range, but battled the  Warriors to a draw on the boards (33-33) and held them to 38.3% shooting (18 of 47).

Lakeland defeated Wisconsin Lutheran for the second consecutive season and also ended the Warriors' chances this year of earning the top seed in the NACC Tournament, as Concordia University Wisconsin has clinched the top spot in the tourney.

The Muskies' game Saturday against Benedictine will begin at 8 p.m. at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium. The game also will mark Senior Night for four players who will take part in their final regular season home game, including Barron, Greenheck, Gaby Cappaert (Stephenson, Mich.) and Callie Olson (Middleton, Wis.).