Box Score

Upper Iowa hosted the Winona State Warriors for their third matchup of the season tonight in Dorman Gym. The Peacocks led for most of the first half, but headed into halftime trailing by one. Upper Iowa regained the lead early in the second half, but failed to match the Warrior’s offense down the stretch. Winona State benefitted from several Upper Iowa turnovers converting them into 22 points en route to a 70-61 victory. The Warriors improved to 12-5 overall and 6-4 NSIC, while the Peacocks fall to 4-13 and 1-9 in the conference.

The Peacocks jumped out to an early 7-2 lead in the first half led by Sam Thrapp; the junior hit two free throws in the first five seconds of the game and followed a Carly Pagel lay up with a three-pointer. Upper Iowa pushed their lead to seven points on two separate occasions.  Whitney Kieffer converted on a layup with 13:21 left as UIU claimed a 14-7 edge.  Six minutes later, sophomore Laura TerHark’s steal set up an assist as she passed to Lyndsay Carroll for a trifecta that put the Peacocks ahead 22-15 with just over seven minutes to play.  WSU rallied with a 6-0 run over the next minute and a half to pull within one point, 22-21.

Upper Iowa would bring the lead back to five with a three-pointer by TerHark, but Winona State went on a 10-0 run with Becca Friestleben scoring back-to-back three pointers and adding a layup to put the Warriors ahead by five, 34-29. The Peacocks slimmed the lead back to one with a deep three-pointer by TerHark with 27 seconds remaining. Upper Iowa went into the half trailing 37-36.

Chelsea Garcia put the Peacocks ahead 40-39 after hitting a free throw four minutes into the second half, but Friestleben went on another eight point run of her own and put the Warriors ahead by seven, 47-40, at the midway point of the half. 

Upper Iowa pulled within five points three separate times over the next four minutes, but could not overcome the deficit.  Both teams exchanged points in the final minutes of the game and the Warriors would go on to win 70-61.

Thrapp led the Peacocks with 12 points, while Garcia added 10 points and 9 rebounds. TerHark scored 9 points for Upper Iowa, hitting three of her five three-point shots. Pagel stood tall for the Peacocks down low collecting 11 rebounds and blocking 3 shots. Carroll brought in six boards and Lauren Buck brought in four. Jennifer Herrick led the team in assists with three.

Upper Iowa will host Minnesota, Crookston on Friday night and Bemidji State on Saturday with tipoff set for 6 p.m. both nights.