PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Concordia University Chicago spoiled Senior Night for the Lakeland University women's basketball team and ensured a rematch between the teams in four days by defeating the Muskies 54-44 Tuesday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

Coupled with a loss by Milwaukee School of Engineering to Marian University Tuesday night, the Cougars clinched the ninth seed in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament. As a result, eighth-seeded Lakeland will host CUC Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in a first round game and the third matchup between the teams this season. The winner will advance to face top-seeded Wisconsin Lutheran College next Wednesday in a quarterfinal game.

The Muskies (12-12 overall, 8-9 NACC) will be looking for an upswing again after a roller coaster ride that has lasted for nearly a month now with alternating wins and losses over the team's last 11 games. The highs and lows have been particularly violent of late, including Tuesday night against Concordia (7-15 overall, 6-11 NACC).

One game after its best shooting performance of the season, Lakeland had its worst. The Muskies made 14 of 63 shots (22.2%) and needed a rally in the final minutes just to get over the 20% mark after sitting in the teens much of the night.

Lakeland was coming off a win Saturday on the road at a Benedictine University team that finished 13-4 and third in the NACC regular season, and the Muskies also defeated CUC 61-47 on the road twelve days earlier. Lakeland played from behind almost the whole game this time, though, as the Cougars finished the first quarter on a 13-2 run to take an 18-11 lead and would never trail again.

The Muskies maintained contact for a while, trailing by four points on two occasions late in the first half, but Concordia took a 26-20 lead into halftime after Lakeland made 5 of 32 shots in the opening half (15.6%). The Cougars then stretched the lead in the third quarter. A run of nine straight points was capped by a layup by Alisyn MacGregor off an assist from Jaylene Wade to give CUC a 39-23 lead with 4 minutes, 29 seconds left in the period, and the guests would maintain a 44-32 lead after three quarters.

Lakeland would briefly get within ten points after a steal and layup by Kacey Gardner (Sr.-Evergreen Park, Ill.) just seconds into the fourth quarter, but the Muskies would go cold again and were held scoreless for more than five minutes. Concordia scored nine straight points again, with Wade's layup with 6:12 left marking the largest lead of the game at 53-34. The only drama down the stretch was whether some of Lakeland's seniors could have a shining moment on their Senior Night, and Alicia Thone (Sr.-Neenah, Wis.) hit a three-pointer while Chassity Bradford (Sr.-Lincoln Park, Mich.) grabbed three rebounds and scored on a putback in the final minute.

Alexa Yost (So.-Menasha, Wis.) led Lakeland with 11 points and was the only to score more than five points. Hayley Walding (Sr.-Bradenton, Fla.) added seven rebounds to tie a career high and Gardner finished with five points, six rebounds and three steals.

Mikalah Ellis led Concordia with 13 points and added seven rebounds and three blocked shots, Wade scored 12 points and MacGregor added eight points and nine rebounds.

The game was the final regular season one at home for six Lakeland seniors, including Bradford, Gardner, Thone, Walding, Chanel Bradford (Lincoln Park, Ill.) and Morgan Zenon (Twin Lakes, Wis.).