AURORA, Ill. – Aurora University's Marcus Myers scored on a layup with 39 seconds left in overtime and Lakeland University saw a good effort on the road come up just short in a 94-89 loss Saturday afternoon in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game.

Myers final basket of his 31 points broke a tie and the Muskies missed two chances to tie in the final 16 seconds in dropping their second straight conference game. Lakeland's postseason fate was delayed another day as it still needs one more win or to come out ahead of tiebreakers to clinch a spot in the NACC Tournament.

The Muskies are still in fourth place 11-8 with one NACC game to play and are 1 1/2 games ahead of seventh-place Rockford University in the race to fill out the six berths in the tournament. In a tie one-half game behind Lakeland are Concordia University Wisconsin and Marian University, the latter of which the Muskies will host for their conference finale and Senior Night Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Aurora (15-8 overall, 14-4 NACC) rallied from a five-point deficit late in regulation to force overtime. Lakeland held a 77-72 lead after Garrett Duffin (Jr.-Princeton, Ill.) hit a jumper with 2 minutes, 20 seconds left in the game, but the Spartans came back to tie after a three-pointer by Justin Wierzgac and a layup by Myers with 56 seconds left.

The Muskies (14-9 overall) regained the lead on a layup by Shakur Jinad (So.-Chicago, Ill.) with 34 seconds left, but the Spartans tied it again when Matt Dunn was fouled and converted both free throws. Lakeland's three-point attempt in the final second was off and left the teams tied at 79-79 headed for an extra session.

Aurora never trailed in overtime after scoring the first basket just 10 seconds in, but the Muskies came back to tie it three times, the last after Jinad hit a three-pointer with 56 seconds left making it 88-88. The Spartans' Myers scored next time down, though, and Lakeland could never come back, missing chances to tie when splitting one of two free throws with 16 seconds left and then a three-pointer while down three with eight seconds to play.

The two teams were close all day in a game with 11 ties, 12 lead changes and neither team leading by more than eight. It was even closer in the second half when the largest lead was six, and then only briefly on two occasions for Aurora before the Muskies went on an 18-7 run to go ahead 71-66 with 5:29 left.

Lakeland did hold the lead for almost the entire first half, ahead by eight points as late as 32-24 after two free throws by Joshuan McNeal (Sr.-Chicago, Ill.) with 5:30 left before the half. Aurora fired back with a 15-3 run and eventually carried a 42-40 lead into half.

Duffin scored 19 points to lead five Muskies starters in double figures, with Jinad adding 18 points, Pat McDonald (Jr.-Port Washington, Wis.) 17 and McNeal 10 points plus 11 rebounds. Zach Hasenstein (Fr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) also chipped in 10 points plus five assists.

Lakeland shot 47.4% (36 of 76) and committed just 11 turnovers, while Aurora shot 50.7%, hitting 34 of 67 field goals. Myers finished with 31 points plus a game-high 15 rebounds and Dunn added 22 points.