Box Score

The Peacock women's basketball team lost a heartbreaker in Fayette to open the New Year; the Cougars of the University of Sioux Falls escaped Dorman Gym with a two-point win, 70-68.  The loss was UIU's ninth straight as the home team fell to 3-10 overall and 0-6 in the NSIC. 

While Upper Iowa created extra opportunities with the ball by forcing 28 Cougar turnovers, Sioux Falls countered by pulling in 13 offensive rebounds and winning the rebound battle, 40-32. 

The home team jumped out to an early lead, 14-5, thanks to five points from point guard Sam Thrapp and four from sophomore Whitney Kieffer.  Sioux Falls began to claw back into the contest with a quick 6-0 run cutting the gap to just three points, but Upper Iowa got a second three-pointer from the hand of Chelsea Garcia and reclaimed a 19-11 advantage with seven and a half minutes to play in the half.  UIU still led by seven, 30-23, with 1:37 to play, but Sioux Falls scored the final six points of the half on back-to-back trifectas to pull within one, 30-29, heading to the locker room.

Upper Iowa came out of the halftime break with the same energy as the opening tip to push their advantage back to seven, 41-34, five minutes into the second half.  Sioux Falls cut the margin to just one point on three occassions over the next seven minutes, but each time the Peacocks answered the challenge and brought the lead back to seven.

As the clock moved under seven minutes to play, Kieffer nailed a step-back three to give the home team a 61-54 lead.  The Cougars slowly began to chip away at the margin led by Laura Johnson.  Johnson put the team on her back and willed them back into the game.  At the three minute mark, Johnson drained a pair of free throws to give Sioux Falls their first lead of the game, 68-67.  Kelli Hoff hit a lay up with 33 seconds left to put the visitors up by three, 70-67.  Lauren Buck scored the final point of the game for the Peacocks at the free throw line, but UIU was unable to come up with a score to tie in the final seconds.

Johnson led all scorers with 24 points and also pulled down 15 rebounds to record a double-double. 

Kieffer scored a team-high 16 points, while Thrapp added 14 and 4 assists.  Buck, Carly Pagel and Lindsay Carroll all tallied 8 points, while Garcia netted 7.  Buck grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds in the game and added a pair of blocks.

The Peacocks will return to Prochaska Court tomorrow at 6 p.m.  UIU will host the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State University with both teams looking to break losing streaks and come up with their first NSIC win of the season.