PLYMOUTH, Wis. – St. Norbert College started fast in both halves, building margins that in the end were too tough for the Lakeland University women's basketball team to erase in a 64-50 loss Saturday afternoon at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

St. Norbert outscored Lakeland 42-21 over the first and third quarters and the Muskies lost to the defending Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference champions, dropping to 4-9 overall and 2-2 in conference. St. Norbert improved to 6-8 overall this season and 3-2 in the NACC.

The Muskies shot just 29.6% (16 of 54) from the field, but with a scrappy defensive effort still found a way to stay with the Green Knights. Lakeland nearly came all the way back from a big deficit in the first half, cutting a 14-point margin in the first quarter down to two, and was still within single digits with less than two minutes left in the game until the guests salted the game away at the free throw line.

St. Norbert scored the game's first five points and led 18-4 less than six minutes into the game after Taylor Thiry comverted a three-point play. The Green Knights were ahead 20-6 late in the first when the Muskies began working their way back into the game.

Jenna Shea (Fr.-Appleton, Wis.) hit a three-pointer from the corner late in the period to cut SNC's lead to 20-10 after one quarter, and Lakeland chipped away in the second quarter. Bree Arsenault (Sr.-Hermansville, Mich.) split two free throws to close the Muskies within 22-18 with 7 minutes, 3 seconds left in the first half, and Lauryn Johnson (So.-Kenosha, Wis.) scored with 2:26 left in the half to cut the Green Knights' lead to 26-24.

Neither team scored the rest of the half, leaving Lakeland down just two going into halftime, but St. Norbert came out strong to start the second half with an 11-2 run. Avery Bierowski scored on a layup to make it 37-26 with 6:32 left in the third quarter, and the Green Knights pushed the lead back to 14 when Chloe Gruszynski drained two free throws to make it 48-34.

Lakeland held SNC scoreless for the first 5:44 of the fourth quarter, though, and drew back within 48-40 when Jenna Caterino (Jr.-Stanton, Mich.) made one of two foul shots with 5:40 to play. St. Norbert finally gained some breathing room when Emma Morrisey hit a three-pointer with a hand in her face with 4:15 left, but Meryam Belbaz (Jr.-Skokie, Ill.) answered with a three-pointer to make it 51-43, and the Muskies were still down just nine until Thiry scored inside to make it 55-44 with 1:57 left. The Green Knights finished the game hitting 9 of 12 free throws over the final 1:10 to put the game away.

Dani Damrow (Fr.-Elkhart Lake, Wis.) led Lakeland with eight points and a collegiate-high nine rebounds, including eight offensive rebounds. Johnson also scored seven points and Caterino, Caris Jaeger (Fr.-Oostburg, Wis.) and Kerstin Sauerbrei (Sr.-Ripon, Wis.) added six points each. All 11 Muskies who played scored at least one point, but Lakeland struggled from the field and also made 15 of 26 free throws (57.7%).

Morrisey scored 20 points to lead St. Norbert, including making all 10 of her free throw attempts. Thiry added 15 points. The Green Knights made 21 of 59 field goals (35.6%) and 19 of 27 free throw tries (70.4%).

Lakeland faces another difficult test at home in its next game when it hosts Wisconsin Lutheran College Wednesday night at 7 p.m. to round out a three-game stretch at the Woltzen Gymnasium.