The Lakeland University women's basketball team defeated Marian University 70-56 in its regular season finale at the Woltzen Gymnasium Saturday night, and now the Muskies' season will continue-thanks to a coin flip.

Lakeland finished 5-5 in conference and in a tie with Milwaukee School of Engineering for the fourth spot in the NACC North Division. The teams did not play this season during the shortened NACC schedule, and conference tiebreaking procedures did not determine an advantage for either team. The final procedure is a coin flip, and the Muskies won a coin flip conducted by the NACC office with the conference commissioner, assistant commissioner and Edgewood athletics director Al Brisack on a Zoom call.

The result is Lakeland wins the fourth seed in the divisional playoff, and the Muskies now will travel to face North Division top seed Wisconsin Lutheran College on Thursday, March 4 in Milwaukee at a time to be determined.

Saturday night's needed victory saw Lakeland's Megan Will (Sr. – Lake Mills, Wis.) lead all players with 20 points, to go along with 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Kacey Gardner (Jr. – Evergreen Park, Ill.) ended with 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Hayley Walding (Jr. – Brandenton, Fla.) scored eight points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out three assists off the bench.
 
Marian was led by Claire Levendoski who had 14 points, while Serina Pehowski and Paris Harris each scored 12 points.
 
Lakeland finished with 18 assists on 26 field goals and drained eight 3-poitners in the victory. It also had 10 steals, 13 offensive rebounds and made 10-of-12 at the free throw line.
 
Lakeland used a quick 9-0 scoring run over a two minute and 25 second span in the opening quarter to turn push ahead by 11 points, 16-5. During the run four different Muskies scored, including a Walding who nailed a 3-pointer. After 10 minutes of action the hosts held a 21-14 lead after shooting 50 percent (9-of-18) from the field.
 
The Muskies slowly began to pull away in the second quarter behind a 17-2 scoring run that lasted nearly six minutes. The scoreboard rang up back-to-back 3-pointers by Gardner and four points by Lauren Downs (So. – West Bend, Wis.). In the second period alone, Lakeland continued its blistering shooting with 53.8 percent from the floor (7-of-13).
 
Through 20 minutes of action Lakeland made over half of its field goal attempts (51.6 percent) and received 13 points from its bench. Ellie Felsinger (So. – Cedar Grove, Wis.) added four points in five minutes before the intermission.
 
Marian drained the first bucket of the second half, a 3-poitner by Claire Levenoski to cut its deficit to 13 points. From then on Lakeland pushed its lead back up to 20 and continued to put the points on the scoreboard. The hosts led by a game-high 22 points twice in the third period at the 5:39 and 4:56 marks. Will came alive in the quarter with eight points.
 
The Sabres scratched their way back in the fourth and got to within 15 points with 7:20 to force a timeout. The Muskies answered with an 8-2 scoring and later emptied the bench to have 17 players get into the game.
 
Lakeland finished the game with 24 points from its bench and scored 13 points off 15 Marian turnovers.