DE PERE, Wis. – St. Norbert College blistered the nets to the tune of 57.6% shooting and the Lakeland University men's basketball team was defeated 96-71 in its Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference opener Monday night.
The Green Knights scored 59 points in a red-hot first half and dominated play inside throughout the contest in continuing to own the series between the teams since SNC joined the NACC. St. Norbert has won all seven meeting over the Muskies since its first year in the conference in 2021.
The Green Knights shot 68.8% in the first 20 minutes, making 22 of 32 field goals in the first half in taking a 59-40 halftime lead. Lakeland (2-3 overall) came out strong at the start, jumping to a 13-5 lead just 2:30 into the game after two quick three-pointers by
Peyton Mrotek (
Sr.-Luxemburg, Wis.) and five more points from
R.J. Hines Jr. (
Jr.-Gainesville, Fla.).
The teams were still tied at 22-22 after two free throws by
Asanjai Hunter (
Sr.-Racine, Wis.) with 11:31 left in the first half. St. Norbert kicked it into another gear from there, outscoring the Muskies 37-18 the rest of the half.
The Green Knights then came out of halftime and quickly scored the first 12 points of the second half, and Will Stuckey's layup inside made it 71-40 with 17:35 left in the game. The Muskies generally kept SNC from building the lead much more but never got closer than 23 points the rest of the way.
Hunter and
Jaxson Dillon (
Sr.-Menasha, Wis.) scored 17 points each, including Dillon scoring 15 points in the first half.
Parker Braun (
Jr.-Brillion, Wis.) added six points and four rebounds and Mrotek finished with six points and five assists.
Lakeland finished shooting 35.8% (24 of 67), including 13 of 35 from three-point range (37.1%). The Muskies also made all ten of their free throw attempts.
St. Norbert stayed well above 60% shooting until substituting freely the last five minutes, finishing the game at 38 of 66 from the field. The Green Knights enjoyed a 64-20 advantage in points in the paint and also dominated the rebounding battle 47-29. Stuckey scored a game-high 23 points and Connor Pytleski added 16 points.
Lakeland next will face Michigan Tech for an exhibition game Saturday at 1 p.m. up in Houghton, Mich. The Muskies are back into NACC play next Wednesday, Dec. 3, hosting Illinois Tech at 7 p.m. at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.
