Jake Jurss made two free throws with 55 seconds left for what proved to be the winning points and Concordia University Wisconsin defeated the Lakeland University men's basketball team 65-64, giving the Muskies another tough loss in Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play Tuesday night.

The homestanding Muskies had two shots to take the lead in the final minute, including a game-winning three-point attempt at the buzzer, but the Falcons survived in the battle between longtime rivals. Concordia remained near the top of the NACC standings, while Lakeland lost its fourth straight game by single digits or in overtime.

A game that included eight ties and 15 lead changes appropriately came down to the final minutes. The teams swapped the lead three times in the final 1 minute 31 seconds, and the tense final minute saw both teams come up with big stops defensively and the game coming down to one final shot.

Lakeland (6-10 overall, 4-7 NACC) led by six when Eric Nygaard (Sr.-Plymouth, Wis.) hit a three-pointer making it 57-51 with 6:25 left, and the Muskies were still ahead until Jurss tied the game at 61-61 with a three-pointer with 2:10 to play. Concordia (10-5 overall, 10-2 NACC) then took the lead with 1:31 to play on a Jordan Johnson layup, but Lakeland went right back ahead when Garrett Duffin (Sr.-Princeton, Ill.) hit a three-pointer from the left wing with 1:18 left to make it 64-63.

Jurss was fouled inside on CUW's next possession and made both foul shots for the lead, and the Falcons got a stop eight seconds later when a Lakeland three-point attempt was off target. The Muskies got the ball back, though, when Nygaard rebounded a missed three-pointer, and eventually took timeout with just over seven seconds left. After another timeout with 4.2 seconds to play, Concordia shut down Lakeland's inbounds play from the sideline and Zach Hasenstein (So.-Sheboygan, Wis.) had to take a long three-pointer from the right wing that was short, with the ball bounding away as time expired.

The Muskies fell despite delivering one of their best defensive efforts of the year, and in a game between the two teams that was uncharacteristically low-scoring. The 65 points were the least by a Lakeland opponent this year, and the hosts also held the Falcons to 40.4% shooting and forcing 20 turnovers.

Lakeland and Concordia frequently have played games into the 80s and 90s in recent years, but this was the lowest-scoring game between the two since the Falcons won 65-51 on Feb. 11, 2009. Both teams were held in check from the field by the other on this night, with the Muskies making just 36.8% of their shots (25 of 68) and hitting 9 of 35 from three-point range (25.7%) and CUW shooting 21 of 52 from the floor.

The game was close the entire way, with neither team leading by more than seven at any point. Concordia led 37-35 at halftime after Olalekan George's steal and layup just before the buzzer capped a first 20 minutes where the teams swapped the lead nine times. Lakeland led by as much as seven in the early going before the Falcons came back to lead by two on three different occasions late in the half.

Jequan Pegeese (So.-Beloit, Wis.) led the Muskies with 12 points, including nine in the first half. Duffin scored 11 and added eight rebounds while Nygaard also scored nine points and contributed eight boards and five steals. A balanced scoring effort in all saw six players scored at least seven points.

Johnson scored a game-high 20 points to lead Concordia. Josh Hau added 17 points for the Falcons and George added 10 points off the bench.

The Muskies now begin a string of three straight games on the road starting with a trip to face Aurora University on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. in Aurora, Ill.