Jan. 2, 2010
Final Stats
The Upper Iowa Peacock men's basketball team opened the 2010 calendar year this evening by visiting Bismarck, North Dakota to take on the Marauders of the University of Mary. Despite holding a two point halftime advantage, the visitors dropped the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matchup, 85-71.
UIU jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead after the first five minutes of action thanks to five points by Matt Lesan, but U-Mary would charge back and take the lead, 24-22 with 6:44 remaining in the first half. The remainder of the first half saw three more lead changes as UIU took a 37-35 lead into the halftime break.
Lesan led the Peacocks at the break with nine points on three-of-three shooting while Devin Eighmey tallied seven points. The Peacocks shot 12-of-22 (54.4%) in the first half which included a three-of-four mark from beyond the three-point arc and outrebounded the Marauders 19-11. However, UIU committed eight more turnovers than did the home squad.
The second half started out the same way the first half ended with the Peacocks leading throughout the first 12 minutes of the final half, however; U-Mary went on a 15-0 run over the next two and a half minutes to extend their advantage to 76-64 with 5:21 remaining in regulation. While UIU cut the lead back to nine, they wouldn't get any closer and lost the game, 85-71.
U-Mary's Eric Erdmann led all scorers with 37 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the field and 10-of-12 shooting from the charity stripe. Lesan led UIU with 13 points while Brad Burgus and Eighmey each posted 11. UIU outrebounded U-Mary by one, but lost the battle of the turnovers, 17-6. For the game, Upper Iowa shot 24-of-47 (51.1%) while the Marauders posted a 27-of-50 (54.0%) mark from the field.
With the loss, UIU drops to 6-6 on the season and 3-2 in NSIC play while U-Mary improves to 3-2 in league play and 6-5 overall.
Upper Iowa will complete the opening weekend of 2010 as they visit Aberdeen, South Dakota tomorrow night to take on the Wolves of Northern State. Tip off is slated for 6:00 p.m. inside Wachs Arena.
