Box Score  
After starting Friday night’s game against Wayne State just the way they wanted to, the Upper Iowa Peacocks let off the gas in the opening minutes of Saturday’s contest with visiting Augustana. The Vikings jumped out to an early 22-7 lead and despite a big push in the second half, the Peacocks’ comeback fell short as UIU dropped its first NSIC game of the season, 71-64.

“It’s not about winning or losing tonight,” UIU head coach Brian Dolan said. “It’s about our lack of focus, mental focus, leadership and the whole nine yards. We had a lot of selfishness out there tonight and not the kind of selfishness you think of when you first hear the word. Just selfishness with our decision-making and it cost us the game.”

Up until Saturday, UIU had not trailed to a conference opponent at halftime, but Augie changed that stat in a hurry. The Vikings took a 38-29 lead into the break after shooting 53 percent from the floor in the first half, including 41 percent from beyond the arc.

Augie, which dropped its first game of the season on Friday to Winona State, kept up the intensity after the break. The Vikings built a 45-31 lead – their largest of the second half– just four minutes removed from halftime.

UIU fought back with strong defense and hustle-plays. The Peacocks went on a 20-8 run to pull within three, 53-51, with 8:30 to play. Two minutes later, Sam Elgin’s 3-pointer from the corner was off, but he was fouled in the process and converted all three of his free throws to give UIU its first lead of the night, 54-53.

Viking guard Cameron McCaffrey responded with two free throws of his own before Elgin and Tucker Wentzien hit a pair of free throws each. The Peacocks’ 58-55 lead with 4:47 left was their largest of the game, but it didn’t last long.

Augie hit a three to tie the game at 58, then three minutes later McCaffrey hit another from way beyond the arc to give the Vikings a 66-60 lead with just 47 seconds remaining.

“You have to play for forty minutes,” Dolan reminded his team afterwards. “We had a chance there at the end – we took the lead – and then as soon as we took the lead we took a deep breath and exhaled. As soon as we exhaled, we went right back to being sloppy and selfish.”

After making just 7-of-15 free throws through the first 36 minutes of action, the Vikings were able to seal the victory late as they connected on 6-of-8 from the charity stripe. The 71-64 victory gives Augie an 8-1 overall record, including a 4-1 mark in the NSIC. The Peacocks, on the other hand, fall to 6-3 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

“I’m not going to sit here and dwell on one loss and press the panic button by any stretch of the imagination,” Dolan said.

At halftime, the seventh-year coach didn’t draw up any fancy plays or make brash substitutions. Rather, he challenged his team to simply play better, harder and with more intensity.

His team responded, but no two players had a better outing than sophomore guard Grant Lang and redshirt-junior David Smith.

Lang had 11 points in the first half thanks to 3-of-4 shooting from downtown. His hot shooting continued in the second half as he missed only two of seven 3-pointers all night. He finished with a team- and career-high 18 points.

“I really liked his game tonight,” Dolan said. “He was the one guy who probably played the most complete game. Imagine if he’d done that and other guys played solid – we’re looking at a different outcome.”

While Lang drove the offense, Smith did his dirty work on defense. He helped UIU’s defense hold Augie to just 9-of-23 shooting in the second half, helping UIU climb back into the contest. He was also a perfect 2-of-2 from the floor shooting and added two assists to his stat-line.

Overall, the Peacocks tallied 14 assists to just nine turnovers, but UIU was outrebounded 39-25 by the Vikings, including 14-6 in the offensive rebounding category.

“We have to grow from it,” Dolan said. “We’re not going to hang our heads on it, but you should feel awful. We have to bounce back, we play in 48 hours.”

UIU will have a quick turnaround indeed as they play on Monday against Menlo College in the Hawaii Pacific Tournament in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

“We have issues that we need to get better at,” Dolan said about his team’s trip to the Aloha State. “The light’s gone off and we have two games left before Christmas break and I think those will set the tone for the rest of the year.”