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Muskies fall after second half Concordia rally

Pearl Wallace converted the back end of a pair of free throws with four seconds remaining in the second half to break a 54-54 tie as the Lakeland College women's basketball team lost 55-54 Tuesday night in a Northern Athletics Conference contest against Concordia Wisconsin at Moose & Dona Wolzen Gymnasium.

Down one with 2.7 seconds remaining, KC Blahnik took the inbounds pass from center court and released a running jumper from the center of the lane that deflected off the left side of the rim as time expired.

Lakeland (10-4, 5-2) had a 12 point lead, its largest of the game, with 12:17 remaining in the second half before the Falcons connected on five consecutive shots, including four three pointers, to erase the Muskie lead and tie the game at 42-42 with nine minutes remaining.

Concordia Wisconsin (8-6, 7-1) took its first lead of the second half three minutes later on a pair of free throws and never trailed for the remainder of the game.

Lakeland made 41 percent of its shots on the night, its best shooting performance since the fourth game of the season. However, the Muskies were just 5 of 10 from the free throw line and just 2 of 6 from the charity stripe in the second half.

"We played with a lot of effort tonight, but we just can't give up that big of a lead," Lakeland head coach Teri Johnson said. "Making half of our free throws is unacceptable."

Blahnik paced Lakeland with 15 points and eight rebounds, her seventh game this season in which she has led the team in points. Freshman Dana Henrichs scored 10 points in 26 minutes off of the bench and was 2 of 3 from three point range.

Wallace led all scorers for Concordia Wisconsin with 16 points and 10 rebounds. The Falcons were a perfect 4-4 from the three point line in the second half and out-rebounded Lakeland 40-22 on the night.

Lakeland continues conference play this weekend as the front end of a men's/women's doubleheader at Aurora at 2 p.m.

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