RIVER FOREST, Ill. – The Lakleand University men's basketball team shot 60% in the second half and clinched a home game to open the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament with a 93-90 win at Dominican University Saturday afternoon.
The Muskies wrapped up the No. 4 seed in the NACC Tournament and will face fifth-seeded Milwaukee School of Engineering in a first round game Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium. Lakeland will be looking for its first win of the season over MSOE after the Raiders swept both ends of the teams' regular season home-and-home series.
Lakeland (13-12 overall, 11-9 NACC) trailed by 19 points in the first half and was down 18 with just over 13 minutes left in regulation. The Muskies were down 62-44 after a layup by the Stars' Dennis Handy with 13 minutes, 34 seconds left in the game, but would rarely have an empty trip down the court the rest of the way, scoring 49 points in the final 13:08.
Lakeland made 15 of its final 20 shots from the field, and a basket by
Carlos Campos (Sr.-Janesville, Wis.) gave the Muskies a 73-72 lead with 4:44 to play. Dominican tied the score just over a minute later at 75-75, but Lakeland would score on its next six possessions to never trail again, even leading by seven with less than a minute left.
The Stars would close back within two points at 91-89 on two free throws by Tyler Guest with 20 seconds left and got the ball back on a steal shortly after. Dominican's Luke McDermott was called for a charge with 12 seconds left, though, and
Isaac Anderson (
Sr.-Linden, Wis.) made two free throws to push the lead back to four points.
Zach Hasenstein (
Jr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) scored 17 points to lead six Lakeland players scoring in double figures. Campos also added 15 points and Anderson and
Jequan Pegeese (
Jr.-Beloit, Wis.) added 14 points each.
The Muskies finished shooting 49.2% (31 of 63), including 18 of 30 in the second half. Lakeland also made 27 of 33 shots from the free throw line (81.8%).
Jackson Smith scored a game-high 29 points for Dominican, which shot 44.2% (34 of 77) and outrebounded the Muskies 45-34, including 19 offensive rebounds.
