Box Score
The Peacock women's basketball team pulled away from their hosts, the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State, in the second half to post their third straight win, 71-58, to improve to 7-13 overall and 4-9 in the NSIC.
Upper Iowa pulled off the win thanks to a pair of double-doubles from
Whitney Kieffer, 28 points and 17 rebounds, and
Carly Pagel, 14 points and 16 rebounds. The duo's 35 rebounds were six more than the entire Mustang team pulled in. The Peacocks won the battle on the boards by twenty, 49-29.
Over the opening eleven minutes, Upper Iowa worked out to an eleven-point advantage, 20-9, as Kieffer controlled the offensive end with 11 early points. The UIU defense played strong during the opening span as well forcing 9 Mustang turnovers.
The home team rallied going into the locker room as they held UIU to just six points in the final nine minutes of the half. While the Peacock offense went ice cold, the SMSU offense pulled within one, 26-25, as the teams left the floor for halftime.
As the second half opened the teams traded buckets, but Upper Iowa never gave up the advantage. The lead sat at two, 32-30, with eighteen minutes to play, but quickly grew as the visitors used an 18-5 run over the next seven minutes to get away.
The Peacocks used scores from seven different players including three-pointers from
Laura TerHark and
Jennifer Herrick and a pair of old-fashioned three-point plays by Kieffer and
Sam Thrapp.
The margin grew to its largest point of 15 points on three occassions as Southwest Minnesota State was never able to cut the lead into single digits.
UIU picked up the thirteen-point win thanks to a 28-14 advantage in points in the paint and a 13-4 advantage in bench points.
Kieffer's added to her 28 points and 17 rebounds with two assists and two steals. Pagel handed out an assist and picked off one pass in addition to her 14 points and 16 rebounds. Both players pulled in 8 offensive rebounds. Five other Peacocks netted five or six points to balance out the scoring attack.
Upper Iowa will look to continue to climb in the NSIC standings tomorrow evening. The Peacocks will line up against the Cougars of Sioux Falls on Saturday at 4 p.m. USF escaped Dorman Gym on Jan. 4 with a two-point win over the UIU.
