#4 Lakeland University Muskies (6-5 overall)
at #1 Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors (9-1 overall)
Thursday, March 4, 2021Â Â 7 p.m.
Recreation Complex
Milwaukee, Wis.
NACC Tournament North Division Semifinal
Lakeland/Wis. Lutheran WBB Game Notes  PDF
Lakeland University is right back at Wisconsin Lutheran College for basketball one more time Thursday night, this time with the Muskies meeting the Warriors in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Women's Basketball Tournament North Division semifinal at 7 p.m. at WLC's Recreation Complex in Milwaukee.
The Muskies women's team will try to perform the feat the Lakeland men's team wasn't able to do a night earlier: topple the top-seeded Warriors for the first time this season and doing so as the fourth and lowest-seeded team in the divisional playoff. No. 1 seed Wisconsin Lutheran handled No. 4 Lakeland 105-71 in Wednesday night's NACC men's tourney North Division semifinal/
Fan attendance policy:Â PerÂ
WLC's Indoor Sports Spectator Policy, visiting teams are allowed two guests per player/coach. A guest list for each game is submitted by the visiting team before the game. No changes will be allowed after the guest list has been submitted.
Broadcast Information:Â Live audio and video from WLC are available to follow along with Thursday night atÂ
https://boxcast.tv/view/womens-basketball-vs-lakeland-435800. Live statistics are also available atÂ
https://wlcsports.com/sports/wbkb/2020-21/boxscores/20210304_7kud.xml.
Series history:Â 73rd meeting, Lakeland leads 45-27
The Muskies and Warriors resume a series that dates back to 1983. The teams met twice this season already, with WLC winning both games in a weekend set at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium Feb. 12-13. After a 68-46 victory to open the series, Lutheran followed with a 70-50 win Feb. 13. Lakeland's last win over the Warriors was a 58-49 victory at home Jan. 30, 2018, as the Fish spoiled WLC's having just appeared in the national rankings for the first time in school history earlier that week.
Lakeland last time out: Defeated Marian 70-56 Saturday
The Muskies closed out the regular season with their fourth win in a row, all coming in a span of five days last week.
Megan Will led all players on Saturday with 20 points plus 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the week and third overall of the season. The Muskies never trailed in the game and used a quick 9-0 scoring run in the opening quarter to push ahead by 11 points. Lakeland began pulling away in the second quarter behind a 17-2 scoring run that lasted nearly six minutes. The Sabres got the game to within 15 with 7:20 remaining, but that was as close as Marian would get as Lakeland answered with an 8-2 scoring run that sealed the game. The win plus MSOE's loss to Concordia Wisconsin meant a tie between the two for the fourth spot in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference North Division. The Muskies and Raiders did not play this season, and all other tiebreakers did not result in an advantage for either team, so the final spot in the North Division playoff came down to a coin flip which Lakeland won to continue its season.
Wisconsin Lutheran last time out: Lost at Edgewood 75-49 Saturday
The Warriors were dealt their first loss of the season Saturday night, falling to defending NACC champion Edgewood to split their weekend series. The Eagles led 37-24 at halftime and used a 13-0 lead early in the second half to put WLC in a hole it could not get out of. Kaitlyn Shadoski led Wisconsin Lutheran with 12 points, Sam Leiseman added 11 points, and Jenna Mace tacked on ten points in the loss. Despite tying Edgewood for the North Division title, the Warriors won the top seed via a tiebreaker going all the way down to the best road winning percentage in conference.
Recapping the first two meetings: Lakeland held a slim two-point halftime lead in the first meeting, but the Warriors outscored the Muskies 37-13 in the second half to win the first game of the series. A 16-2 WLC run in the third quarter was too much to overcome for a Muskies team that made just 6 of 29 shots in the second half.
Abby Nylund led Lakeland with 14 points, including four three-pointers, but no other Muskie scored more than six points. The second game saw
Megan Will became the 14th player in Muskies history to score 1,000 points, brightening a day when Lakeland fell into a 30-7 hole by early in the second quarter and then ran out of steam after cutting the deficit down to eight late in the third quarter.
