FOND DU LAC, Wis. – The Lakeland University men's basketball team closed out its regular season with a second straight loss to Marian University, but the Muskies found out later Saturday night that their season will continue in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament next week.

Lakeland fell to Marian 71-65 but slipped into the back door to the NACC tourney, qualifying for the NACC North Division playoffs as the No. 4 seed when Concordia University Wisconsin edged Milwaukee School of Engineering 63-61 Saturday night. Lakeland and MSOE both finished with 4-6 records in divisional play, but the Muskies won the tiebreaker between the teams based on a sweep of the Raiders in the regular season.

Lakeland now will travel to face top seed Wisconsin Lutheran College in a divisional semifinal game Wednesday at 7 p.m. The winner advances to the divisional final Saturday against the winner of the other semifinal between Concordia Wisconsin and Edgewood College.

The Muskies (7-7 overall) go into the postseason after falling to Marian for the second straight night. Lakeland held a 10-point halftime lead and still led by nine with under 10 minutes to play, but the Sabres made the plays down the stretch and finished the game on a 17-5 run.

David Britton scored 20 second half points for Marian (4-7 overall, 3-7 NACC North), including a three-point play with 2 minutes, 35 seconds left that gave the Sabres a 61-60 lead, their first lead of the game.

Trenton Nickel (Sr.-Kiel, Wis.) came back with a layup to put the Muskies back ahead by a point, but Britton found Tyler Gouin for a layup the next time down and Marian never trailed again. The Sabres closed the game out making six straight free throws while Lakeland missed five of its final six shots in the last two minutes.

The Muskies rebounded from poor shooting the night before to make 46.7% of their shots Saturday (25 of 54), including 11 of 30 from three-point range. Marian shot 62.5% in the second half, though, making 15 of 24 shots including 5 of 8 from long distance, and outrebounded Lakeland 36-27.

The Sabres' trio of Britton, Gouin and Dylan Gmeiner also was a handful again, combining for 61 of Marian's 70 points. Gouin and Gmeiner added 18 points each, including Gmeiner making 5 of 7 shots off the bench, three three-pointers and 5 of 6 from the foul line.

Cam Jaeger (Fr.-Oostburg, Wis.) led the Muskies with 22 points, making 8 of 13 from the field including 4 of 7 from three-point range. Aiden Polzin (Fr.-Clintonville, Wis.) added 11 points and five rebounds, Nickel scored nine with four rebounds and four assists and Jequan Pegeese (Sr.-Beloit, Wis.) scored seven points and added five rebounds, five assists and three steals.