The Muskies and Regents meet for the first time in more than two years in a series Lakeland has owned of late. The Muskies have won 11 straight over Rockford, including most recently a 78-42 blowout on the road Jan. 8, 2020. Lakeland also won the last meeting in the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium, an 87-41 win Jan. 2, 2019. The Regents' last win in the series came more than eight years ago with a 70-63 overtime victory in Rockford Jan. 9, 2014. Lakeland and Rockford first met on Nov. 21, 1997, with the Muskies picking up an 82-36 win on the way to winning the first five meetings all-time between the two schools.

Lakeland last time out: Won at Concordia Chicago 61-46 Thursday
The Muskies used strong defense to win the first of two meetings with the Cougars over a span of 13 days this month, holding CUC to 13 points in the first half and 27.0% shooting for the game. Lakeland built a 17-7 lead after one quarter and led by double digits most of the game, answering the call in the third quarter after Concordia briefly closed within seven points. Alexa Yost scored 13 points, Kerstin Sauerbrei added 11 and Brianna Jones (13 rebounds) and Kacey Gardner (10 boards) added double figures in rebounds along with eight points each. The Muskies continued a recent stretch of alternating wins and losses, a stretch of six games now dating back to mid-January.

Rockford last time out: Won at Dominican 59-49 Tuesday
The Regents received another big game from freshman star Anaya Davis to win their 10th game, topping 10 wins in a season for the first time since 2010-11. Davis posted a huge double-double with 25 points and 22 rebounds to help Rockford rally in the final 10 minutes. The Regents outscored the Stars 23-11 in the final quarter, including an 11-2 run to end the game after leading by a point with just over two minutes left. Rockford shot just 30.3% but held Dominican to 30.5% shooting and also outrebounded the Stars 63-37, including 26 offensive boards, 13 of those from Davis.

About the Regents: Rockford enters the season's stretch run with a real chance at its first winning season since 2007-08 and at 6-7 in the NACC also is battling Lakeland for position in the conference standings. The Regents are led by third-year coach Taylor Stinson, a former Rockford men's basketball assistant coach, and he has one of the top players in the NACC in Davis, who is averaging 17.5 points and 13.8 rebounds per game. Davis leads NCAA Division III with 16 double-doubles and is seventh nationally in rebounding, and has four games with at least 21 rebounds this season.

Top scorers: Alexa Yost led the Muskies in scoring against Concordia Chicago on Thursday, her first time this season leading Lakeland in a game. She is the seventh different player to lead the team in scoring in a game. Others to accomplish the feat include Kerstin Sauerbrei (team-best six times leading team), Kacey Gardner (four), Ellie Felsinger (three), Lauren Downs (two), Morgan Zenon (two) and Hayley Walding (one).

Free throws are...free: Lakeland has struggled shooting free throws for much of the season but has picked it up considerably from the line in its last three games. The Muskies were hitting just 56% from the stripe through their first 16 games, but in their last three games have made 79.3% of their free throws (46 of 58). Lakeland had shot better than 60% in only five of its first 16 contests, but in its last three its worst performance was 68.8% (11 of 16) against Wisconsin Lutheran. The game before that, the Muskies hit a season-best 90% (18 of 20) in a win at Illinois Tech.