The Lakeland University women's basketball team saw a halftime lead slip away as Wisconsin Lutheran College put together a big second half to defeat the Muskies 68-46 Friday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Warriors outscored Lakeland 37-13 in the second half and won the first of two Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference North Division games between the teams in two days. WLC also stayed undefeated, moving to 5-0 overall and in the division, while the Muskies dropped to 2-2 overall and 1-2 in the NACC North.

Wisconsin Lutheran held Lakeland to 31.5% shooting (17 of 54) for the game. The Muskies also committed a season-high 24 turnovers and saw senior Megan Will (Lake Mills, Wis.) thwarted in her attempt to reach the 1,000-point mark for her career.

Will scored just four points, with two, three and sometimes even four WLC defenders defending her every time she touched the ball. With 997 career points, she remains three points shy of becoming the 14th in program history to join the 1,000-point club.

Virtually the entire second half was a rough one for the Muskies, who were playing for the first time in nearly two weeks, but a six-minute stretch in the third quarter especially swung the game thoroughly in the Warriors' favor. Lakeland held a 38-37 lead with 7:18 left in the third after Abby Nylund (Sr.-Crystal Falls, Mich.) hit a three-pointer, but WLC went on an 16-2 run in that span capped by a Kaitlyn Shadoski layup making it 53-40 with 46 seconds left in the third.

Lutheran finished outscoring Lakeland 24-9 in the third period on the way to a 55-42 lead, and the Muskies never challenged again, scoring just four points in the fourth quarter. Lakeland finished making 6 of 29 shots in the second half (20.7%).

The Muskies got off to a good start with a strong first half that saw a number of players step up. Nylund scored Lakeland's first 11 points of the game, including a trio of three-pointers. Kaity Birkholz (Sr.-Watertown, Wis.) and Morgan Zenon (Jr.-Twin Lakes, Wis.) also added six points each off the bench. After seven ties and four lead changes early, the Muskies led for much of the second quarter and carried a 33-31 lead into halftime.

Nylund finished with 14 points including four three-pointers, but no other player scored more than the six points for Birkholz and Zenon. Will and Kacey Gardner (Jr.-Evergreen Park, Wis.) both added four points and seven rebounds.

Jenna Mace scored 18 points to lead Wisconsin Lutheran. Sam Leisemann added 14 points and nine rebounds and was in the middle of Wisconsin Lutheran's second half run, scoring 10 of her points and adding seven boards. WLC shot 39.1% (27 of 69) for the game and also outrebounded Lakeland 48-38.

The Muskies and Warriors meet again Saturday night at 5 p.m. in the Woltzen Gymnasium.