2008 Woodie Awards
Muskie men fall to WLC
Corey Kempf
Issue date: 2/15/07 Section: Sports
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Tuesday's trip to Milwaukee chalked another one up for the REX.
Matt Rogers scored a career high of 33 points but the Muskies could not overcome Wisconsin Lutheran's sharp-shooting second half in an 87-81 loss.
A three pointer by Aaron Regal with 4:23 left to play put Lakeland (13-10, 10-6 NAC) ahead, 67-64, but the Muskies went without a field goal for the next three minutes as Wisconsin Lutheran went on a 13-1 run for a 77-68 lead.
The Warriors (14-10, 11-6 NAC) then hit 8-of-10 free throws the rest of the way to shut down any run the Muskies tried to mount playing foul-and-fire.
Lakeland was able to erase a seven point Warrior lead to enter the half with a 35-34 deficit and then were forced to come from behind again after WLC went up by six early in the second half.
The Muskies came back from another six point Warrior lead later in the second half, but, after Regal's three pointer, a pair of turnovers by Regal and Danny Ehnert allowed the Warriors to take the lead for good.
"I wish more people would come out and see small college games like that one because it was an exciting game from start to finish," said head coach Kyle Brumett said.
Christian Lindberg came off the bench for WLC to score a team-high 21 points, including a thunderous finish on an alley-oop from Micah Biesterfeld, who added 12 points of his own.
Regal added a three-pointer in the waning moments of the game to finish with a career-high 26 points.
Between the two of them, Regal and Rogers shot 19-for-27 from the floor, but the rest of the team made only 9-of-33. The Muskies got only eight points from their bench, while WLC's bench pitched in 30 points.
"I can't say enough about Matt," Brumett said. "He gets better every game it seems like."
Lakeland has only won one game at Wisconsin Lutheran since 1998, but despite Lakeland's history at the REX, Brumett said the loss would have happened anywhere.
"You could play on the moon and still lose with the way we turned the ball over in the second half," Brumett said about his team's 18 turnovers, 11 of which came in the second half.
Lakeland out-rebounded the Warriors, 36-30, but were outpaced by the Warriors' 62.5 percent field goal and 87.9 percent free throw shooting.
The Muskies fell behind the Warriors in the NAC standings but are still in position to grab one of the six spots that will advance to the conference tournament.
Lakeland can punch their ticket to the conference tournament with a pair of home wins over Maranatha on Thursday and Marian on Saturday. Tip-off times are scheduled for 7 p.m. and 4:15 p.m., respectively.
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