The Upper Iowa Men's Basketball team visited Wayne, Neb. Saturday evening to take on the Wildcats of Wayne State College. The Peacocks overcame a five point deficit at halftime and held off the Wildcats in the last minute of the contest to win the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matchup 60-57.

Eight early points from Tucker Wentzien helped push Upper Iowa out to a quick 14-3 lead just five minutes into the contest. But the Wildcats owned the next five minutes of the matchup as they answered with a 9-0 run of their own to cut the Peacock lead to just two points, 14-12 with 11:10 remaining in the first half. Following two quick UIU buckets, the Wildcats scored 11 unanswered points to take control of the contest, 26-19 with just four minutes before the halftime break.

Upper Iowa fought to keep the margin in single digits, and even though WSC's lead would hit seven points on two separate occasions in the last four minutes of the first half, the Peacocks found themselves down just five points, 32-27, going into halftime.

Wentzien paced UIU with 9 points after the first twenty minutes of action while senior Matt Lesan chipped in five. The Wildcats tallied one more bucket than did UIU, but used a three-of-five advantage from beyond the three-point arc to hold the slight halftime lead. UIU outrebounded the home squad 16-11 at the break, while committing two more turnovers.

The two teams played back-and-forth and traded buckets for the majority of the second half of action. While the Wildcats led for much of the half, Upper Iowa never allowed the home team to gain a lead greater than six points and took a few leads of their own late in the half. Matt Lesan sank two free throws with 4:41 remaining in regulation to give Upper Iowa a slim one-point lead, 52-51. Center Point, Iowa-native Sam Elgin extended UIU's lead to three just seconds later, but the Wildcats would battle down the stretch and after a WSC jumpshot, UIU found themselves up just one point, 56-55, with 1:32 remaining.

Following a Wildcat block on a Jake Hughes shot attempt, Wentzien came up with a steal with 17 seconds to go in the second half and then sank four free throws in the final seconds to allow Upper Iowa to escape with a 60-57 victory.

Wentzien paced UIU with 18 points which included a seven-of-eight clip from the charity stripe. Lesan dropped in 12 points while Elgin scored 11. Upper Iowa shot 45.8% from the floor (22-48) as they improved to 6-11 overall and 5-8 in NSIC contests.

Upper Iowa will return to action next Friday, Jan. 28 when they travel to Marshall, Minn. for a 8 p.m. matchup with the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State University.