Feb. 6, 2010
Box Score
Upper Iowa entered tonight's ball game in Dorman one game ahead of their guests, the Wolves of Northern State University, in the Northern Sun Conference standings. As teams in the conference jockey for position and an opportunity at the NSIC Tournament each win or loss will carry more weight. On Friday night, both the Peacocks and Wolves defeated teams above them in the standings.
The two teams battled in a very tight first half that saw the visitors claim a one-point lead at halftime after a lay in at the buzzer.
Northern State took the largest lead of the half after scoring the first five points of the game. Upper Iowa rallied with a 10-2 run to take a 10-7 lead, but neither team was able to pull away by more than three points for the remainder of the half. The Peacocks used a jumper in the paint by Keith Steffeck to take a 25-24 lead with 32 seconds to play, but the Wolves claimed the halftime lead, 26-25, on a Casey Becker lay in at the horn.
The visitors opened the second half by scoring the first six points to push their lead to 32-25, but the home team rallied and scored the next six points to get back within one at the 17:15 mark. The two teams continued to battle as UIU tied the score, 37-37, with 13:51 to play in the game.
The Wolves tried to get away from the Peacocks taking a six-point lead, 51-45, with eight minutes to play, but the Peacocks rallied and got back within one, 53-52, with 6:25 remaining on the clock.
Jordan King picked up his first points of the night with a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock to push the NSU lead to four and then Mitch Boeck put the visitors on his back with seven straight points for the Wolves to give them a 63-56 lead as the clock moved under four minutes.
Upper Iowa was able to cut the gap back to one, 63-62, thanks to back-to-back three-point plays by Matt Lesan and Brad Burgus. Boeck continued his offense display with four more points to put the Peacocks behind 67-62 with 1:27 to play. A Burgus lay up cut the margin to three, but Boeck knocked down his thirteenth straight point for the Wolves with a 15-foot jumper to regain the five-point advantage.
The final straw may have come when Boeck came up with a steal on the defensive end and then put home two free throws to push the lead to seven; the senior guard scored the final point of the game from the charity stripe as Northern State claimed the 72-64 win to move into a tie with the Peacocks at 8th place in the NSIC standings.
Upper Iowa was led by three players in double figures including 12 from Burgus, 11 from Lesan, and 10 for Steffeck. Tucker Wentzien pulled down 8 rebounds, while scoring 7.
Northern State was led by Boeck's game-high 37 points; Boeck hit 12 of 14 free throws in the game. Derek Hoellein scored 14, while King picked up 10 assists and pulled down 8 rebounds.
The Peacocks will travel to Augustana and Wayne State next weekend, Feb. 12-13, for a pair of NSIC road games. Upper Iowa and Augie will tip at 8 p.m. on Friday night and the Peacocks and Wildcats will begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
