Men's basketball loses in closely contested games
Lakeland drops two games at home; next up is three game road swing
Danny Spatchek
Issue date: 1/28/10 Section: Sports
|
The loss was the first at home in conference play for Lakeland, who allowed the visiting Regents a 49.1 shooting percentage in the game, including a 51.5 second half percentage.
"We didn't come out with as much energy as we had on Tuesday (versus Concordia Wisconsin)," Men's Basketball Coach Aaron Aanonsen said. "We weren't able to capitalize on some of the things that I thought we could and they rebounded harder than we did, which let them get the close victory."
Rockford owned the lead for most of the second half, but sophomore forward Jake Schwarz made two free throws to give Lakeland a 53-51 lead at the 12:13 mark.
Lakeland missed four shots and committed two turnovers to assist Rockford to an 8-0 run and a six point advantage.
Aanonsen said the loss was tough to take given their previous undefeated record in conference play at home.
"I feel like we're more confident at home-but I think that's the case [for teams] in every basketball conference," Aanonsen said. "I feel we would have won the game, but we just didn't play hard enough."
Both teams attempted 23 free throws on the night, with Lakeland edging the visitors 20 to 19 in free throws converted. Rockford had the upper hand in long-range shooting, connecting on over 45 percent of their 3-point attempts. Lakeland shot just 25 percent from behind the arc.
Schwarz scored 22 points and pulled down eleven rebounds while sophomore guard Josh Regal contributed 18 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Freshman guard P.J. Marion had a career night off the bench for the Muskies, scoring 12 points in the first half en route to a total of 14.
Lakeland hosted MSOE in another tightly-contested Northern Athletics Conference match-up that concluded with a 65-60 Lakeland defeat on Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Moose and Dona Woltzen Gymnasium.
Be the first to comment on this story