PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Jequan Pegeese (Sr.-Beloit, Wis.) scored a season-high 24 points on Senior Night but Lakeland University was done in by a scalding hot shooting performance as Marian University in a 105-79 loss in its regular season finale Wednesday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Sabres blistered the nets all night and finished shooting 64.5% as the Muskies dropped to 10-13 overall and 6-10 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Lakeland finished the regular season 10th in the conference and will be the No. 10 seed in the NACC Men's Basketball Tournament, opening against No. 7 Benedictine University in a first round game Saturday at 7:15 p.m. in Lisle, Ill.

The Muskies ran into a buzzsaw against a Marian team (15-8 overall, 11-7 NACC) that came in among nine teams in the conference separated by one-half game in the standings. The Sabres' second win this season over Lakeland, combined with other conference results Wednesday night assured Marian the fourth seed in the NACC Tournament.

Marian finished making 40 of 62 field goals and spent much of the game shooting better than 70%, still sitting above that mark with seven minutes left. The Sabres also drained 13 of 23 from three-point range (56.5%).

The Muskies received an early foreshadowing of how their evening would play out in the game's first two minutes. Marian senior Dylan Gmeiner, who came into the contest averaging 8.3 points per game, topped that in 110 seconds, hitting three consecutive three-pointers for a quick 9-0 lead.

The Sabres led 11-0 before Lakeland could get on the board, and would go on to play a near-perfect first half, shooting a mind-boggling 76.7% in making 23 of 30 shots, including 8 of 11 from three-point range. The Muskies stayed with the Sabres for a time and trailed 28-17 after a three-point play by Aiden Polzin (So.-Clintonville, Wis.) with 10 minutes, 11 seconds left in the opening period, but Marian began pulling away and led by as many as 24 on the way to a 56-36 halftime lead.

Lakeland briefly closed within 18 just after the start of the second half, but Marian did not cool off and led by 31 at 83-52 after Nick Brakebush hit a three-pointer with 10:49 left in the game. The Muskies could never make a serious dent and the Sabres topped the 100-point mark on a three-pointer by reserve Riley Hendrickson with 2:47 to play.

Marian's offensive execution was so pristine that Lakeland was unable to hang in despite one of the best shooting efforts of its own season. The Muskies shot 49.2% (31 of 63), their third-best shooting of the season and not far off their best of 50.6% against Finlandia in November.

Pegeese finished making 10 of 17 shots from the field and did much of his damage getting into the paint, where Lakeland scored 40 points. Marian limited the Muskies' ability to make up ground quickly, though, holding them to a 6 of 22 mark from beyond the three-point line.

Kai Buliox (So.-Milwaukee, Wis.) also scored 14 points and grabbed a team-best seven rebounds and Polzin added 13 points. Isaiah Hammond (Fr.-Milwaukee, Wis.) also added nine points and six rebounds.

David Britton led Marian with 24 points, including 19 in the first half before resting much of the second half. Delvin Barnstable scored 22, Tyler Gouin added 16 plus seven rebounds and Gmeiner finished with 12 points.

A total of five seniors were honored before the game, including Pegeese, Phillip Curtis IV (Detroit, Mich.), Greg Barber (Miami, Fla.), Caleb Matthias (Crete, Ill.) and Matt Sechman (Chicago, Ill.).

Lakeland now gets ready to face Benedictine for the second time in a week, as the Eagles edged the Muskies 67-62 in Lisle on Saturday.