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Hot shooting propels Lakeland to eighth straight win


Athletics - posted on 1/12/2008

The Lakeland College men's basketball team held off a great shooting performance from visiting Concordia University Chicago to post a 91-84 win Saturday, the Muskies' eighth straight victory.

Lakeland (10-4, 6-1) is alone in second place in the Northern Athletics Conference thanks to a Dominican win at Marian on Saturday. Aurora also won Saturday to improve to 7-0 in league play.

The Muskies had held the opposition to 58 points per game in the first seven game of their current winning streak. But the visiting Cougars (2-10, 2-5) jumped out to an early lead, and hung around thanks to 53.6 percent shooting in the second half. Concordia finished the game 13 of 29 from 3-point range.

"The dangerous thing about winning streaks is you're always going to have a letdown," Brumett said. "We have to win games in a lot of different ways. You're not going to play college basketball and not have some games like we did today.

"In the first half, they were tougher than us and they pushed us around a bit. At the beginning of the second half we curtailed that, but then we were not nearly as tough as we needed to be to finish it out. Toughness isn't only being physical and getting rebounds, it's making free throws and wide open layups. We missed several layups, and they were building momentum off our carelessness."

Lakeland shot 55.2 percent in the second half, and Brumett lauded several of his seniors for turning in big performances. Shane Grube scored a career-best 26 points in 19 minutes, hitting 8 of 12 shots, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range.

"It just felt good," said Grube, who was in his third game back in the lineup since breaking his hand in late November. "I even had one slip and it went in so you know it's a good day. Coach said some days you might have to score in the 80s and find a way to get it done. We just hope we don't have to do it too many times."

Kris Saiberlich scored 22 points, finishing 3 of 6 from 3-point range and 9 of 9 from the free throw line. Danny Ehnert had 15 points on 7 of 10 shooting and 15 rebounds.

"We're just getting better every day," Grube said. "Coach finds something for us to get better at every day."

"Danny was just outstanding today, and Shane had a great game," Brumett said.

Lakeland puts its win streak on the line Tuesday when it hosts Concordia, Wis., for a 7 p.m. tipoff.

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