The Lakeland University men's basketball team used a huge rebounding advantage and excellent free throw shooting to rally back from a big deficit and defeat Dominican (Ill.) University 81-76 Saturday afternoon in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game.

The Muskies fought back from being 16 points down late in the first half, outscoring the Stars 45-30 in the second half. Lakeland improved to 4-7 overall and moved to 3-5 in the NACC while also gaining ground on Dominican in the standings, dropping the visitors to 3-4 in conference (5-6 overall).

The Stars held a 39-23 lead late in the first half before the Muskies began their comeback. Lakeland whittled the deficit down to 10 points by halftime, trailing 46-36, and then kept chipping away in the second half.

The Muskies knocked their deficit down to four points early in the second half, watched it grow back to nine points when Dominican took a 57-48 lead with 11:51 left, but then outscored the Stars 16-2 over the next five minutes. Brandon James (Jr.-Rockford, Ill.) hit a three-pointer in transition to give Lakeland its first lead of the game at 62-59 with 7:36 left.

Dominican came back to tie it at 66-all after a three-point play by Charlie Ollis with 5:15 left, but the Muskies scored on their next trip down when Mark Gryszkiewicz (Sr.-Sussex, Wis.) lobbed a pass to Eric Nygaard (Jr.-Plymouth, Wis.) for a layup.

Lakeland would not trail again, in part because of outstanding free throw shooting. The Muskies hit 8 of 11 foul shots down the stretch, part of a 26-for-32 showing from the stripe for the day (81.3%). Joshuan McNeal (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) hit 12 of 13 free throws for the game on his way to 24 points, and McNeal, James and Pat McDonald (So.-Port Washington, Wis.) combined to hit 25 of 29 from the line.

Lakeland also dominated the boards in the game, out-rebounding Dominican 44-27, including a huge 23-12 advantage in the second half. The Muskies also limited the Stars' three-point shooting in the last 20 minutes, holding the visitors to two triples in the second half after they hit seven in the first half.

James finished with 27 points, McNeal scored 24 and added eight rebounds and McDonald also added 17 points. Nygaard grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, including seven of the Muskies' 19 offensive boards.

Tim Robertson scored 29 points and Josh Mayberry added 18 for Dominican. Mayberry scored just two points after halftime, though, when the Stars shot 42.3% (11 of 26) after hitting 50% from the field in the first half (17 of 34).

Lakeland is back in action Tuesday when it travels to face Wisconsin Lutheran College at 7 p.m. in Milwaukee.