RIVER FOREST, Ill. – Isaiah Hammond (Sr.-Milwaukee, Wis.), Cliff McCray (Sr.-Madison, Wis.) and Gage Cornell (Jr.-Manitowoc, Wis.) all stepped up with career highs and the Lakeland University men's basketball team earned a long-awaited first victory of the season, turning back Dominican University 96-93 in overtime Saturday afternoon at the Igini Sports Forum.

McCray made three free throws to tie the game with 54 seconds left in regulation, part of his career-best 27 points. Hammond also scored a game- and career-high 29 points and Cornell added 17 points as the Muskies improve to 1-7 overall and 1-2 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.

Lakeland trailed by five points when Robert Taylor scored to give Dominican (2-5 overall, 0-2 NACC) a 76-71 lead with 2:02 left in the second half. Hammond scored the next time down, and McCray was then fouled attempting a three-pointer with 54 seconds left. The senior made all three foul shots, part of a huge day at the line, and the game went to overtime after the Stars missed the front end of a one-and-one with 38 seconds left and a pair of attempts by Hammond in the closing seconds were blocked, keeping the score tied.

Lakeland then scored the first 11 points of the overtime to break out to an 87-76 lead after two more free throws by McCray with 2:16 left. Though the Muskies would not score another field goal the rest of the way, they would make 13 of 14 free throws in the extra period.

Dominican still made a run, slashing a nine-point deficit with less than a minute left down to two in just 12 seconds. Andre Bennett made a three-pointer and was fouled with 54 seconds, made the free throw, and then after a turnover made another three-pointer with 42 seconds left to suddenly cut the Lakeland lead to 93-91.

Hammond hit two free throws with 33 seconds left to push the lead back to four. Dominican scored with 10 seconds left to close back within two, Cornell split two free throws with eight seconds remaining, and the Stars were unable to get off a final shot.

The teams were close for much of the game with 10 ties and eight lead changes. The Muskies built an early 30-18 lead after Hammond's dunk with 7:49 left in the first half, but Dominican went on an 18-4 run over the next 3:42 to take a 36-34 lead. The teams would go into halftime tied at 40-40 and neither would lead by more than six points until the overtime period.

Hammond made 11 of 18 shots from the field including a pair of three-pointers plus 5 of 7 from the line in besting his previous career-high of 23 points set twice earlier as a Muskie. McCray hit just 5 of 14 from the field but drained 15 of 17 from the free throw line, and Cornell hit 3 of 5 from the floor and 11 of 12 free throws.

Lakeland shot 45.2% as a team (28 of 62) but made 36 of 44 free throw attempts (81.8%). Dominican hit 49.3% of its shots (33 of 67) and 22 of 27 from the foul line (81.5%). The Stars were led by Taylor with 22 points and Camron Scott added 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The Muskies are off during next week for final exams and return to play next Saturday when they host Benedictine University at 1 p.m. at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.