A sluggish night from the free throw line unfortunately led to a 68-66 loss for North Park Friday night against visiting UW-Lacrosse.

After UWL tied the game at 66-66 on a lay-up from Jenna Anderson, Rachel Atchison stole the inbounds pass and scored the game-winning lay-up as time expired to give the Eagles their third victory on the young season, while North Park suffered its first loss of the year.

The Vikings had a few key opportunities down the stretch to pull out the victory, but an 11 of 27 performance from the line, including 3 of 6 in the final 5:18 set the stage for UWL to fight its way back.

After North Park held a 60-51 lead, the Eagles used a 17-6 scoring run to close out the game. Atchison scored 25 of her game-high 29 points in the second half as the Eagles shot nearly 41 percent in the second half, connecting on 13 of their shots.

North Park set the tone early as it led by as many as 14 points after a three-pointer from Liz Rehberger with 7:02 left in the first half. UWL worked its way back into the game, closing the gap to 32-24 at halftime, but the Vikings seemed to still hold the psychological edge as they forced 15 turnovers in the period which transitioned to 10 points off the mistakes.

Rehberger led NP with 16 points. She shot a blistering 50 percent from the three-point line, connecting on 4 of 8 shots, and grabbed seven rebounds. Rachel Torres added 11 points, and Annie Shain was the only other Viking in double-figure scoring with 10 points. Junior Nicole Kruckman grabbed 10 rebounds but was plagued by early foul trouble. MaKenzie Miller tallied 14 points for the Eagles.

North Park (2-1) returns to action Wednesday afternoon when it travels to Aurora University for a 1 p.m. contest.