MILWAUKEE – The Lakeland University men's basketball team hung tough on the road for more than 30 minutes but went cold late in a 71-57 loss to Wisconsin Lutheran College Tuesday night in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game.

The Muskies made just two field goals in the final nine minutes and the end result was the Muskies continued their trend of alternating wins and losses over the last month and dropped to 4-8 overall and 3-6 in the NACC. Wisconsin Lutheran improved to 8-5 overall and moved to 6-3 in conference play.

The game was tied at 47-47 after Joshuan McNeal (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) scored inside with 9:14 to play, but the Warriors scored the next 10 points to take control. Lakeland never got closer than seven points the rest of the way, and when it did on a Kyle Domark (So.-Yorkville, Ill.) three-pointer with 4:32 left, WLC went on another 10-point spurt to put the game out of reach.

Including offensive rebounds, Wisconsin Lutheran scored on 12 of 13 offensive trips over the final nine minutes, emblematic of the hosts' offensive consistency in the second half when they shot 56.7% from the field (17 of 30). The Muskies, meanwhile, missed seven of their final nine field goal attempts over that span and in all made just nine of 29 shots from the floor in the final 20 minutes (31.0%).

The tale of two halves started out well as the Muskies shot 54.2% while holding the Warriors to 25.0% shooting in the first half building a 30-25 halftime lead. Lakeland led by as many as 11 points late in the half and held an advantage at the break even while playing through turnovers and foul trouble.

The Muskies continued to hang tough, holding the lead until WLC's Chase Nowak hit a three-pointer for a 47-45 lead with 10:11 to play. McNeal answered a minute later to the tie game back up, but Lakeland would never lead again the rest of the way.

Eric Nygaard (Jr.-Plymouth, Wis.) scored 13 points to lead the Muskies and was the only player to score in double figures. McNeal finished with a team-high seven rebounds, Mark Gryszkiewicz (Sr.-Sussex, Wis.) notched five assists, and Jacob Servais (Sr.-Coon Valley, Wis.) and Deonte Carlton (Fr.-Green Bay, Wis.) both were productive off the bench, with Servais totaling eight points and six rebounds and Carlton adding seven points and three blocked shots.

Nowak scored a game-high 18 points for Wisconsin Lutheran, while Collin Kennedy added 17 points and 15 rebounds even while shooting 7 of 23 from the field. Christian Walz also added 15 points and six rebounds off the bench.

Lakeland is on the road again Saturday when it travels to play Rockford (Ill.) University at 4:15 p.m. The Muskies are back home on Sunday when they host Finlandia (Mich.) University in a non-conference game at 3 p.m. in a game rescheduled from December.