by The Lakeland College men’s basketball team took the lead with a brief spurt early in the second half and then held off Benedictine (Ill.) University the rest of the way for a 64-61 win Saturday evening at the Rice Center.
The Muskies scored nine straight points to turn a five-point deficit into a four-point lead and never trailed again, answering every challenge to improve to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Lakeland also moved ahead of the Eagles in the conference standings and won at Benedictine for just the third time in the teams’ last eight meetings there.
The Muskies trailed much of the first half and were down 31-26 after a layup by Michael Blaszczyk with 18:17 to play. Lakeland responded with nine straight points, including five by Derick Denny (Sr.-Oneida, Wis.), and a layup by Eric Nygaard (Fr.-Plymouth, Wis.) put the Muskies ahead 35-31 with 16:25 left in the game.
The contest stayed close the rest of the way, but the Eagles (5-3 overall, 4-2 NACC) would never lead again. Benedictine tied the game once on Tahron Harvey’s fast break layup to make it 55-55 with 5:56 to play, but Lakeland took the lead for good almost three minutes later on a basket by Joey Burris (Sr.-Kiel, Wis.) with 3:17 left.
Burris later added two free throws with 27 seconds left to push the lead back to three at 64-61, and the Muskies weathered two final chances for the hosts. Blaszczyk missed the front end of a one-and-one with eight seconds left, but the Eagles got the ball back and Harvey missed a three-pointer just before the buzzer.
Derick Denny (Sr.-Oneida, Wis.) led the way offensively with 21 points, hitting 8 of 14 from the field including 5 of 10 from three-point range. Burris also added 15 points and six rebounds, while Nygaard led the team with nine rebounds.
Lakeland shot 44.1% (26 of 59) and limited Benedictine to 37.9% shooting (22 of 58). Tim McGinty finished with a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Eagles, who out-rebounded the Muskies 42-32.
Lakeland is back home Tuesday when it hosts Milwaukee School of Engineering at 7 p.m. at the Woltzen Gymnasium.
