With its shooting stroke returning in the second half, the Lakeland University men's basketball team rallied from a sizeable halftime deficit only to see Northland College make the last statement and defeat the Muskies 92-88 Saturday afternoon at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

Lakeland followed up a sluggish first half with blazing shooting for 18 minutes, only to see the LumberJacks rally back in the final two minutes. Northland (2-3 overall) scored 10 of the game's final 11 points and made its trip down from Ashland pay off, defeating the Muskies for the third straight season.

Lakeland (1-2 overall) fought back from a 47-33 halftime deficit by heating way up after shooting 34.4% in the first 20 minutes. Carlos Campos (Jr.-Janesville, Wis.) scored 24 of his 26 points in the second half, including five three-pointers, and the Muskies hit seven triples and scored 55 points in the half to surge ahead.

Lakeland posted its first lead since midway through the first half when Campos was fouled on a three-point attempt and made all three foul shots to make it 72-71 with 7 minutes, 51 seconds left in the game. The teams were tied six times over the next four minutes, but the Muskies then pushed out to an 87-82 lead after a tip-in by Shakur Jinad (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) followed by a three-pointer by Jequan Pegeese (So.-Beloit, Wis.) making it 87-82 with 2:10 left.

Northland came back to tie the game again at 88-88 when Ben Arqueros hit a three-pointer with 1:31 left, and the game turned suddenly in the final minute. Brandon Galland drove the baseline and found Ethan Rycenga on the opposite side under the basket for a layup with 35 seconds to play, and after Campos missed a three-pointer, the Jacks were able to run out and got a layup by Modesta Britten with 14 seconds left. Jinad's layup on the other end then missed, and the Muskies never got closer as they missed their final five shots.

Northland shot 54.7% for the game (35 of 64), including 54.5% in the first half. The LumberJacks came back after trailing 6-0 at the start of the game and led by as many as 15 on two occasions late in the half, taking advantage after the Muskies' cold shooting continued after making just 32.4% in a loss to Martin Luther (Minn.) College on Monday.

Jinad and Garrett Duffin (Sr.-Princeton, Ill.) scored 21 points each to join Campos in give Lakeland three scorers with at least 20 points. Jinad also added 11 rebounds and Duffin grabbed seven boards, while Eric Nygaard (Sr.-Plymouth, Wis.) also added seven rebounds. The Muskies shot 45.6% for the game (31 of 68), including 10 of 28 from three-point range (10 of 28) and 16-for-21 from the line (76.2%).

Britten scored 26 points and added eight boards to lead Northland, which out-rebounded Lakeland 42-38 but helped the game stay close by making just 8 of 21 free throws in the second half and 16 of 31 for the game (51.6%). Rycenga scored 15 points off the bench and five players scored in double figures for LumberJacks Head Coach Scott Sorenson, a former assistant at Lakeland from 2004-06.

Lakeland opens Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play on Tuesday when it travels to face Edgewood College at 7 p.m. in Madison.