MILWAUKEE – Wisconsin Lutheran College's Collin Kennedy exploded for 40 points and the Lakeland University men's basketball team's own good shooting still came up short in a 100-90 loss Thursday night in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game Wednesday night.

The red-hot Kennedy posted a career high with the third-most points in a game in WLC history, leading a 56.5% shooting effort for the Warriors. The Muskies shot nearly 50% themselves but could never take the lead back after trailing by one at halftime and dropped to 7-11 overall and 5-8 in the NACC.

Kennedy came into the contest averaging 31.0 points over his previous three games, and he topped the 30-point mark for the fourth time this season. He made 15 of 24 shots from the field, including 5 of 9 from three-point range.

Twenty-three came in the first half, when the Warriors (8-10 overall, 6-7 NACC) opened an early 11-point lead before Lakeland battled back to trail just 37-36 at the halftime break. The Muskies led in the game's early moments but never took the lead back after WLC went ahead 10-8 just over five minutes in, though they did tie the game on four more occasions.

Two of those came in the second half, the first just after halftime on a three-pointer by Pat McDonald (Sr.-Port Washington, Wis.). The second came with 12 minutes, 5 seconds left in the game, when Eric Nygaard (Sr.-Plymouth, Wis.) hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 61-61, capping a rally from seven points down.

Lakeland faded in the final 10 minutes and in particular was hurt by a 3 1/2 minute spell. Leading 67-65 with 10:13 left, Wisconsin Lutheran scored 15 straight points, with Caleb Goldstein hitting a three to start it and Kennedy's triple making it 82-65 with 6:56 to play. The deficit remained steep the rest of the way, with the Muskies scoring the game's final seven points for the final 10-point margin.

McDonald scored 22 points, making 9 of 13 from the field, and paced a group of four scoring in double figures. Jequan Pegeese (So.-Beloit, Wis.) tied a career high with 19 points, Carlos Campos (Jr.-Janesville, Wis.) scored 17 and Shakur Jinad (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) added 16 points.

Lakeland shot 32 of 65 as a team, including 12 of 27 (44.4%) from three-point range. Wisconsin Lutheran made 35 of 62 shots and after Kennedy saw Andrew Bruggink also score 20 points.

The win was the first against Lakeland in three tries for WLC head coach Aaron Aanonsen, who was previously the Muskies' head coach from 2008-17.

The Muskies return to the court Saturday when they travel to face Marian University at 4:15 p.m. in Fond du Lac.