Dec. 6, 2008
Final Stats
The Peacock men's basketball team had a chance in the final seconds to tie their game with the Huskies of St. Cloud State, but a tough call negated Upper Iowa's final opportunity and gave the ball back to SCSU with a just over a second left and a two-point lead. St. Cloud ran out the final second off the clock and claimed the NSIC victory 75-73.
Upper Iowa claimed a 37-36 lead heading into the halftime break. The two teams opened the first eight and a half minutes of the game tied at 17-17. St. Cloud moved out to a seven-point lead 33-26, with just under five minutes to play thanks to outscoring Upper Iowa 16-9 over that time. Upper Iowa found their stride over the final minutes holding the Huskies to just three points, while scoring eleven. The Peacock run was fueled by the bench as all the points were scored by non-starters. Storm Schmitt and Mark Lafrenz led UIU in scoring in the first half with 8 points apiece.
The teams opened the second half with some cold shooting. Midway through the half, Upper Iowa held a four-point lead, 53-49, as the Peacocks held a slight 16-13 advantage in scoring over the first ten minutes. UIU forced the issue on offense and began to be rewarded with point blank lay ups; Nick Kramer and Matt Lesan started to score in bunches. The Peacocks pushed their lead out to seven points, 61-54, with 6:44 on the clock.
St. Cloud rallied quickly to tie the score at 64-64 with three and a half minutes to play, but UIU did not give up the lead until Brett Carmichael hit a lay up, 68-67, with just over two minutes to play. The Peacocks regained the lead moments later on a pair of Lesan free throws, 69-68. After another Lesan lay up tied the score at 71-71, Andrew Bernstetter hit his fifth three-pointer of the game to give the visitors a 74-71 lead. Two Dan Bestul free throws cut the deficit to one, 74-73, and UIU sent St. Cloud State to the line. After St. Cloud made just one free throw, Upper Iowa came down pushing for the tying basket when Bestul was called for a tough player control foul after he had made a pass to Kramer, who stood alone under the basket.
With the loss, the Peacocks fell to 1-6 overall and 0-2 in the NSIC, while the Huskies improved to 5-2 overall and 2-0 in conference action.
Upper Iowa was led by Matt Lesan (16 points), Nick Kramer (12 points, 5 rebounds), A.J. Adkins (10 points), and Mark Lafrenz (10 points). Brad Arnold came off the bench to hand out 5 assists.
Upper Iowa will return to the court next weekend, Dec. 12 and 13. The Peacocks will face the Bulldogs of Minnesota Duluth on Friday night and the Beavers of Bemidji State on Saturday night. Both games are on the road and will begin at 8 p.m. Look to UpperIowaAthletics.com for all your Gameday Live Options about the upcoming contests.
