Box Score
After a full day of plane flights, hotels and getting settled thousands of miles away from home, the Upper Iowa men's basketball team showed no signs of jet-lag on Monday as they dominated Menlo College in their first contest of the Hawaii Pacific University Basketball Classic in Pearl Harbor. The Peacocks jumped on the Oaks early and often en route to a 67-26 victory at historical Bloch Arena, HPU's site for the tournament.
“Our kids played hard tonight,” UIU Head Coach Brian Dolan said. “We played well defensively in both the first half and the second half and I was pleased with the way the guys played offensively in the first half. We got a little sloppy in the second half, but overall, I thought we did a good job.”
A total of 14 different Peacocks scored at least one point for UIU, but it was senior post
Tucker Wentzien who led UIU on offense with 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting. The Solon, Iowa native also collected five rebounds, one steal and one assist in just 17 minutes of action.
“We got the ball to him early and he jumped started us offensively,” Dolan said. “We didn’t run a lot of different plays. We just tried to get better at our base stuff.”
Every set worked for UIU on offense, especially in the first half. The Peacocks outscored the Oaks 38-14 in the first period, their largest margin at halftime this season, thanks to a eye-popping 61 percent shooting performance from the floor.
The scoring barrage continued in the second half as UIU shot 45 percent from the hardwood, including 37 percent from downtown.
Joey Woods finished with a team-high five assists, while
Jake Hughes was close behind with four. Hughes also hit on all three of his shots and collected a team-high six rebounds.
UIU's defense also showed up strong as the Peacocks forced 16 Menlo turnovers, nine of which were Peacock steals. Hughes ended with a team and game-high three steals and now has 10 total for the season, tying him for the team lead with Woods.
UIU held Menlo to just 20 percent shooting on the night, including seven percent from behind the arc. The Oaks had 14 points in the first half and only 12 in the second - both were season-bests for the Peacock defense.
With the non-conference victory, the Peacocks move back into the win column after dropping a seven-point decision to Augustana this past Saturday - UIU's only loss in December thus far. UIU now sits at 7-3 overall and 4-1 in the NSIC, while Menlo drops its fifth straight game and sits at 2-10 overall.
Despite the blowout, a coaches job is to critique, and that's exactly what Dolan and his staff did, whether it was with the starters or the subs.
“We still saw some things we could improve upon,” Dolan said. "A lot of different guys played for us tonight. It was good to get the bench some playing time to see what they could do. We had a lot of players score for us tonight also."
The Peacocks will be back in action on Wednesday as they play the host Sea-Warriors of Hawaii Pacific, who sit at 2-4 overall, but come into the game having won their past two contests.
“Hawaii Pacific is a really good team, even though their record may not indicate that,” Dolan said. “They’re playing well and they’ll present some problems for us just with the way they guard and play defense.”
Tip-off for that game is set for 6 PM CST.
Click here to follow the live stats of that game.
