Box Score
The Peacock women's basketball team earned a 79-64 victory over Bemidji State to sweep their weekend NSIC series. Upper Iowa has only swept a weekend in the Northern Sun one other time; UIU defeated U-Mary and Northern State in late January of 2008. The home team improved to 6-13 overall and 3-9 in the NSIC thanks to a balanced scoring attack that saw four Peacocks reach double figures and take advantage of 31 opportunities at the free throw line.
Upper Iowa jumped out to an early 8-2 lead and still led by five, 12-7, with 14:39 showing on the clock. In the early going,
Whitney Kieffer and
Carly Pagel powered the offense with 6 and 4 points, respectively.
Bemidji State rallied and took a three-point lead, 16-13, thanks to a 9-1 run over the next five minutes. The Beavers forced UIU into four turnovers during the run.
Still trailing by three with under eight minutes to play in the half, the Peacocks went on a 14-3 run over the next six minutes to retake the lead and push their advantage to eight, 29-21. The run was fueled by four three-pointers including three from the right hand of
Laura TerHark.
Upper Iowa took a 32-27 lead into the locker room thanks in large part to a 14-9 advantage in points off turnovers.
In the opening minutes of the second half UIU pushed the lead into double digits, but it was short-lived as the Beavers fired back and cut the margin to five, 43-38, with 14:43 to play. Upper Iowa slowly began to extend their lead and by the midway point of the half, the gap had reached eleven, 56-45.
UIU took advantage of their free throw chances in the second half hitting 17 of 19 at the line. For the game, the Peacocks converted 80.6% (25-31) at the charity stripe.
The ladies in blue controlled the final nine minutes claiming their largest advantage of seventeen points on two occassions. As the final horn sounded the Peacocks had claimed their 79-64 win and posted back-to-back wins for the second time this season.
Kieffer led the Peacocks with 19 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals, while
Sam Thrapp added 13 points, 5 assists and 3 steals. Two more UIU players reached double figures as Pagel poured in 13 and TerHark scored 11. Sophomore
Olivia Winkler scored a career-high 9 points off the bench.
Upper Iowa will travel to Southwest Minnesota State next Friday for a 6 p.m. match up with the Mustangs. The Peacocks will then head over to Sioux Falls to battle the Cougars at 6 p.m. on Saturday. UIU beat SMSU by twenty-one points in the first meeting and lost to Sioux Falls by two.
OF NOTE: The Peacock women's and men's basketball teams won all four games this weekend which marks the first time since moving up to NCAA Division II that Upper Iowa has gone 4-0 over a Northern Sun Conference weekend.
