The Lakeland University men's basketball team opens its Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference schedule competition with one of the conference's best teams and a long-running rival when it hosts Concordia University Wisconsin at 7 p.m. Friday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

Fan attendance policy: Under current COVID-19 protocols, Lakeland University is currently not allowing any spectators for home sporting events.

Broadcast Information:  Live audio/video/statistics are all available to follow along with at  http://www.lakelandmuskies.com/muskieslive. Andy Damp is again calling the play-by-play for all home basketball games this year.

Series history: 127th meeting, Concordia Wisconsin leads 66-60
This is the 127th meeting in a long and usually very evenly matched rivalry between the two schools. Concordia took the lead in the series by winning nine of 11 matchups from 2014-19,  but the Muskies swept both of last season's contests. Lakeland first beat the Falcons on Jan. 21, 2020, scoring a season-high for points in a 109-87 win in Mequon before winning a closer 78-73 battle at home at the Moose and Dona Woltzen Gymnasium Feb. 8. The series dates all the way back to Dec. 17, 1938, when then-Mission House College defeated Concordia College 47-32.

Lakeland last time out: Lost at Northwestern (Minn.) 90-62 Jan. 20

The Muskies struggled on the road in St. Paul and were dealt their first loss of the season as defending Upper Midwest Athletic Conference regular season champion Northwestern (Minn.) shot 54.5% from the field and never trailed. Lakeland shot 32.5% for the game, including 6 of 28 from three-point range, and the Eagles blew the game open early in the second half as the Muskies missed their first eight field goal attempts after halftime. Jequan Pegeese socred 11 points to lead Lakeland, while Earl Lewis, Trenton Nickel and Aiden Polzin all added 10 points each. Greg Barber also added four points plus a team-high eight rebounds.

Concordia last time out: Defeated Loras (Iowa) 96-84 Jan. 13
The Falcons have played once this season, more than two weeks ago when they defeated Loras in their home opener. Jordan Johnson led CUW with 21 points, while Jared Jurss recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists. The two teams played a close game in the first half, but an 11-0 run to close the half sent the Falcons into the locker room ahead 42-40. Freeman Jackson hit a three-pointer with 8:41 left to put Concordia ahead for good at 69-66, though it was still a two-point game with 2 1/2 minutes left until CUW finished the game on an 18-8 run. 

About the Falcons: Concordia is the defending Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference tournament champions, having come from the No. 3 seed to win the conference tourney in 2020 and appear in the NCAA Division III Tournament. The Falcons lost to UW-Platteville in the first round of the tournament, which was cancelled just after the completion of the second round due to the COVID-19 virus. CUW finished with a 19-10 overall mark and 15-5 conference record, and returns four of five starters from last year's team, including 2019-20 first team all-NACC selections Jordan Johnson and Jared Jurss. Johnson was second in the conference in scoring averaging 19.3 points per game, while Jurss-a graduate of nearby Sheboygan Lutheran High School-ranked ninth in Division III averaging 6.8 assists per game.

Shortened NACC schedule begins: Tonight's game kicks off a 10-game conference slate for the Muskies, easily the shortest they've played in as members of the NACC. Schedules have been shortened with the season's late start due to the pandemic, and the conference has also divided teams into North and South divisions for this year. The 2021 conference season is half the standard number of conference games each team has played in past seasons. The 10-game schedule is the smallest in the history of the NACC, which previously has played no less than 16 conference games in a season. The last time the Muskies played less than 10 conference games was all the way back in 1973-74, the last season Lakeland was part of the five-team Gateway Conference, when Lakeland played eight conference games.