Lakeland College

Lakeland sweeps NAC South Division with win over Benedictine

Athletics - posted on 2/4/2012

The Lakeland College men's basketball completed a season sweep of the Northern Athletics Conference South Division with a 101-92 win over Benedictine University Saturday afternoon in the Moose and Dona Woltzen gymnasium.

Lakeland was led by Junior Jake Schwarz (Sheboygan) who recorded his second double-double of the week with a game-high 32 points and 12 rebounds.

The Muskies (16-5, 10-3 NAC) controlled nearly the entire first half and used on a 20-5 run to take a 17-point lead, their largest of the half at the 4:02 mark. In the final seconds of the half, senior Eric Vandivier (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) drove to the lane and found Schwarz open under the basket to make it a 51-36 Lakeland advantaged at half.

Benedictine, who came into today's game as the South Division leader, used a 26-14 run to cut Lakeland's led to five with 2:06 remaining in the game. Vandivier iced the game for the Muskies when he converted on four free throw attempts to make the lead 10 with 17 seconds left.

Vandivier finished with 10 points, five assists and four rebounds, while sophomores Stan McKenzie (Racine) and Justin Ward (Wisconsin Dells) chipped in with 14 points apiece.

The Muskies shot an impressive 91.7 percent from the free throw line in a game that saw 51 fouls called.

The win puts Lakeland back into the race for a North Division championship as it moved into second place along with Edgewood College (16-5,10-3), who fell to Aurora University today.

See what Vandivier and McKenzie say about their performances tonight: http://youtu.be/6h5LKPThn-M

Lakeland returns to NAC action on Feb. 8 as they hit the road to take on the Falcons of Concordia University Wisconsin in another key NAC North game. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. in Mequon, Wis.

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