Lakeland and Aurora meet again in an ancient series that dates all the way back to 1934-35, the Muskies' second year of basketball when the school was known as Mission House College. The schools split their last two meetings in the 2019-20 season. The Spartans won the most recent meeting, taking an 87-80 victory at home Feb. 12, 2020 to snap a brief Lakeland three-game winning streak in the series. The Muskies had defeated Aurora 101-95 at home 11 days earlier, scoring 61 points in the second half. The teams went 42 years without playing each other before the series resumed when both became part of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference in 2006. Aurora holds a 17-10 edge in games since both joined the NACC in 2006-07, and 10 of the last 13 meetings between the schools have been decided by seven points or less.

Lakeland last time out: Lost at Wisconsin-Stout 97-57 Monday
The Muskies took a hard fall on Monday on the road against the Blue Devils. UW-Stout went on a 30-3 run early in the game to put Lakeland down by 25 points with more than eight minutes remaining in the first half, and it never got much better from there as the Blue Devils led by as many as 44 points midway through the second half. While Stout shot 50.0% for the game and posted a huge 57-32 rebounding advantage, the Muskies had a frigid cold shooting night, making 26.6% of their shots including 6 of 34 (17.6%) from three-point range. Jequan Pegeese led Lakeland with 13 points, Cam Jaeger and Kai Buliox scored 11 points each and Greg Barber added 10 points plus eight rebounds.

Aurora last time out: Won at Dominican 80-52 Wednesday
The Spartans blew open a close game early in the second half and handled the Stars for their second NACC win. Shamar Pumphrey scored 20 points and added seven rebounds for Aurora, which held Dominican to 34.5% shooting for the game and outrebounded the Stars 47-28. The Spartans led 30-25 late in the first half but scored the final five points of the half and then outscored Dominican 16-2 at the start of the second half for a 21-2 run in all, and the Stars never got closer than 19 points the rest of the game.

About the Spartans: Aurora is 2-1 in conference play after some non-conference struggles that included a four-game losing streak to finish November. The Spartans are in their third year under head coach Matt Airy, whose team is one of the leaders in the NACC defensively, including leading the conference with 12.1 steals per game and ranking third in defensive field goal percentage (42.2%). Aurora finished 8-4 in the 2020-21 season played in the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but had to replace the top three scorers on that team (Rashad Johnson, Bailey Vance and Mahlik Hall) who combined to average 50.1 points per game.

Hot start for Cam: Even after a tough night against UW-Stout on Monday, Lakeland's Cam Jaeger holds the early lead in the NACC in scoring, averaging 21.6 points per game so far this season. Jaeger has scored at least 21 points in five of the seven games he's played in so far this season. The Muskies have not had a scoring champion in the NACC since Justin Ward led the conference in scoring in the 2013-14 season, averaging 21.9 points per game.