PLYMOUTH, Wis. – The Lakeland University women's basketball team led most of the night but Aurora University scored 29 points in the fourth quarter and rallied to win 65-54 Wednesday night in the Muskies' final home game of the season at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

Lakeland saw a 10-point fourth quarter lead slip away along with a chance to improve its standing in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The result locks in the Muskies to finish eighth in the NACC regular season, and Lakeland will be the No. 8 seed in the upcoming NACC Tournament where it will face either St. Norbert College or Wisconsin Lutheran College in the NACC tourney quarterfinals.

The Muskies handled everything from the Spartans (16-8 overall, 10-5 NACC) for more than 30 minutes, taking a 13-point lead into halftime after a strong second quarter and rebuilding the lead after Aurora made a run in the third quarter.

Lakeland took a 48-38 lead with 8 minutes, 4 seconds left in the game after Jenna Caterino (Sr.-Stanton, Mich.) found Lauryn Johnson (Jr.-Kenosha, Wis.) for a layup, part of a 9-2 run after Aurora had cut a 15-point deficit down to three in the third quarter. The Muskies would score just six points the rest of the game, though, while the Spartans made 9 of 13 shots in the fourth quarter as well as all seven of their free throw attempts.

Aurora went ahead 50-48 with 4:05 left in the game on a layup by Eliot Dojutrek, its first lead since the game's early minutes, and finishing hitting its final five shots of the game, including three three-pointers in the final 3:05. In all the Spartans closed the game on a 15-4 run over the final four-plus minutes.

Lakeland led for all of the second and third quarters, as after both teams sputtered in a low-scoring first quarter the Muskies were the first team to warm up, hitting 8 of 16 shots in the second quarter. Lakeland held the Spartans scoreless for more than eight minutes and went on a 15-0 run to take a 24-9 lead, and took a 27-14 margin into halftime after limiting the visitors to 20.0% shooting (6 of 30) in the first half.

The Muskies took their largest lead of the game early in the third on two occasions, the last time after Halle Boldt (Sr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) scored inside to make it 31-16 with 8:16 left in the period. Lakeland still led 35-24 midway through the quarter when Aurora made its first run, closing to within 39-36 with 1:54 left in the third after a jumper by Krystyna Manzanarez.

The Muskies finished shooting 36.4% (20 of 55), including 12 of 20 from the free throw line (60.0%). Boldt scored 12 points and added seven rebounds, Caterino scored nine and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and Johnson also added nine points plus five rebounds off the bench. Meghan MacPhee (So.-Marquette, Mich.) added seven points off the bench as Lakeland posted a 25-12 lead in bench points and also a 14-6 advantage in rebounds from reserves. As a team the Muskies also posted a 45-32 rebounding bulge for the game.

Manzanarez led Aurora with 16 points, including eight in the fourth quarter. The Spartans shot 36.8% (21 of 57) and made four of their seven three-pointers in the fourth quarter. Aurora also made 16 of 18 free throws (88.9%), well above its season average of 69.0% coming in.

The Muskies close out the regular season Saturday traveling to Fond du Lac to take on Marian University at 1 p.m.