PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Wisconsin Lutheran College came out of the gates red-hot and never cooled down and defeated the Lakeland University women's basketball team 86-37 Wednesday night in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference game.
The Muskies had a tough enough task taking on the NACC power Warriors, who have won 10 conference tournament titles and nine regular season championships in the conference's 17-year history. The task was made even tougher with WLC having easily its best offensive performance of the season with season highs for points and field goal percentage.
Lutheran (9-4 overall, 4-1 NACC) came in shooting 39.4% on the season and had shot better than 43% just once in 12 games, but the Warriors made 36 of 68 shots from the field, finishing at 52.9% shooting after sitting near 60% through the first three quarters. WLC had scored just 42 points in its previous game against MSOE, but the Warriors reached that mark just past the midway point of the second quarter on the way to a 50-point first half.
The Warriors' Mack Hogenson came in averaging 4.7 points with a high of nine points this season, but finished with a career-high 21 points, making 5 of 8 three-point tries. In all the Warriors hit 12 of 27 three-point tries (44.4%), sitting around 50% most of the game before cooling late.
Wisconsin Lutheran scored 31 points in the first quarter alone, shooting 61.9% out of the gates in taking a 31-8 lead. The Warriors led 50-17 at halftime and continued to pour it on in the third quarter, running out to a 71-21 lead midway through the period.
Lakeland (4-10 overall, 2-3 NACC) was led by
Bree Arsenault (
Sr.-Hermansville, Mich.), who scored a career-high eight points off the bench, including a pair of three-pointers.
Jenna Caterino (
Jr.-Stanton, Mich.) added seven points and
Jenna Shea (
Fr.-Appleton, Wis.) finished with five points and three assists.
Meghan MacPhee (
Fr.-Marquette, Mich.) also paced the team with five rebounds and
Dani Damrow (
Fr.-Elkhart Lake, Wis.) finished with four steals.
The Muskies shot 24.4% (11 of 45) and committed 27 turnovers. Lakeland was a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line, though foul shots were few and far between for both teams in a game with just a combined 20 fouls called between the squads.
Lakeland is on the road for its next game at Alverno College Saturday at 2 p.m. in Milwaukee.
