PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Peyton Mrotek (Sr.-Luxemburg, Wis.) stayed red-hot scoring 35 points and the Lakeland University men's basketball team made a second half charge before falling to St. Norbert College 87-76 Wednesday night at the Moose & Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.

The Muskies shook off a rough first half to cut a 25-point deficit down to five points in the second half. Lakeland put a big scare into the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference co-leaders before dropping to 8-16 overall and 6-10 in conference after losing to the Green Knights for the second time this season.

St. Norbert (17-5 overall, 14-1 NACC) opened the game on a 10-0 run, led by as much as 25 late in the first half and took a 48-25 lead into halftime. The Muskies held SNC to just 12 points over a stretch of more than 12 minutes to start the second half, though, as part of a 35-12 run. A layup by Asanjai Hunter (Sr.-Racine, Wis.) brought the deficit to under 15 at 52-38 with 15:08 left in the game, and Emmitt Konieczny (So.-Marshfield, Wis.) hit a baseline floater to draw within 54-45 still with 12:42 remaining.

Lakeland got as close as five points when Jaxson Dillon (Sr.-Menasha, Wis.) hit a three-pointer to cut St. Norbert's lead to 60-55 with 8:08 to play. The Green Knights would score on a three-point play by Charlie Geske their next time down, but the Muskies refused to go away and still were within six when Konieczny drained a three-pointer to make it 75-69 with 2:23 left. St. Norbert finally put the game away by making its last ten free throws over the final 1:28.

Mrotek followed up his career-high 37-point game on Saturday against Dominican by nearly reaching that mark again. The senior guard finished making 13 of 16 shots from the field, including 4 of 6 from three-point range and all five free throw attempts. He scored 21 points in the second half as Lakeland scored 51 points over the final 20 minutes, the most points allowed by St. Norbert in a half this season.

Dillon also scored 14 points and Konieczny added 11 points off the bench, while Parker Braun (Jr.-Brillion, Wis.) also scored nine points and tied for game honors with 12 rebounds. The Muskies shot 34.5% in the first half (10 of 29) but 19 of 38 (50.0%) in the second half in finishing at 43.3% for the game (29 of 67), including 10 of 33 from three-point range.

Will Stuckey scored 18 points and Connor Pytleski added 17 points and 12 rebounds for St. Norbert, which shot 46.7% (28 of 60) and made 25 of 32 free throws (78.1%). The Green Knights also finished with a 45-32 rebounding advantage.

Lakeland goes on the road Saturday to face Concordia University Wisconsin at 3:15 p.m. in Mequon in the second half of a women's/men's doubleheader.