Box Score Records
 
Upper Iowa (1-3) || William Jewell (3-2)
 

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Recap
 
The Upper Iowa Women's Basketball team took a 13-point lead on the Cardinals of William Jewell College early in the first half on Saturday afternoon. Yet, 13 turnovers in the second half and 27 in the game haunted the Peacocks as WJC mounted a strong comeback and sealed its third win of the season, 85-74, at home in non-conference play.
 
The Peacocks relied heavily on their depth at post as Lauren Buck, Carly Pagel and Emily Gustafson combined for 36 points in the game and 21 rebounds. Pagel was big early on as she converted back-to-back buckets five minutes into the game to give UIU a 10-4 lead.
 
Gustafson then converted a three-point play at the 14-minute mark to push UIU out in front by seven. The run didn't stop there though as Laura Terhark converted a three and  Buck converted her own three-point play after being fouled on a jumper. Buck's ensuing free throw gave UIU its largest lead of the game, 19-6, at the 12:06 mark in the opening half.
 
At that point the Cardinals, who started just 5-of-15 from the floor, started to find their groove on offense. At the 9:48 mark, Chelsea Meeks cut the Peacocks' lead to single-digits with a three. WJC kept the run going cutting the lead to six points thanks to a field goal from Hayli Jo Smith.

The Peacocks responded with three buckets from Olivia Meier and one from Whitney Kieffer, who was quiet on Saturday finishing with six points on 3-of-6 shooting. Meier's third field goal in just over a minute of work gave UIU a 29-19 lead with 7:07 remaining before halftime.
 
Despite the offensive spurt, the Cardinals used the final 3:41 of the period to go on a 10-4 run and cut the Peacocks lead to just five points at the break, 43-38.
 
UIU dominated the rebounding battle in the first half, 19-4, but did commit 14 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. That problem continued in the final stanza as the Peacocks turned the ball over 13 times and struggled to hold onto their lead.
 
Three quick points from Buck – who finished with a team-high 15 points – gave UIU a 44-38 lead early in the second half. That's when the tides started to turn.
 
The Cardinals mounted a comeback and tied the game at 48 with 16:31 left in regulation thanks to two free throws from Meeks. WJC then gained its first lead of the game with two more free throws – both coming from Aerial Smith. Pagel tied the game with her first bucket of the second half.
 
Over the next seven minutes the teams were neck-and-neck, battling for any sort of lead. Yet, neither team could pull away until the 8:19 mark, when the Cardinals went on a 10-0 run. During that four-minute stretch, the Peacocks committed four turnovers and missed all four of their shot attempts.
 
The Cardinals extended their ten-point lead to 15 with 1:58 to play as UIU's hopes of a comeback faded out of sight.
 
In all, the Peacocks shot very well in the second half at a 40-percent clip, but the 13 turnovers compared to just 4 for the Cardinals led to the WJC comeback.
 

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Stat of the Game
 
The Peacocks out-rebounded the Cardinals, 19-4, in the first half en route to a five-point lead at the break. Yet, William Jewell bounced back and edged UIU off the glass in the second half, 19-17, including nine offensive rebounds for the Cardinals en route to the victory at home.
 

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UIU Standouts
 
Buck (15 points, 9 rebounds, 1 steal), Pagel (14 points, 6 rebounds), Lindsay Carroll (11 points, 6-for-6 on free throw attempts), Sam Thrapp (8 points, 7 assists), Gustafson (7 points, 7 rebounds), Kieffer (6 points)
 

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Sounding Off

Head Coach Carol Russell After the Game...

Thoughts on the First Half... "I thought our kids came ready to play. We came out of the gate strong, which is something that hasn't happened the first couple of games. We handled their pressure well on offense and got through their press to get some easy looks. Defensively, we started in our press and that gave us our good start. We were able to get out in transition and control the tempo of the game."

Thoughts on the Second Half... "We just had way too many turnovers. You're not going to win a lot of games if you're turning the ball over 27 times. It was hard for us to get stops when we had those kinds of turnovers. They were getting baskets in transition and we just could not recover."

On Today's Post Play... "That's going to be a huge key for us this season and it's one of the things we talked about heading into this game. I thought our post players could dominate in this game and we wanted to get the ball inside. Carly Pagel continued to get better and as she improves that's going to help our guards. We just need to continue to get her the ball."

Heading into Next Week... "I want our kids to learn and understand that we have to be disciplined offensively with the ball. To their credit, William Jewell had some really strong guards. For us, we just need to learn what kind of mindset we need to bring when we head into conference. We have to be stronger with the basketball."

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Up Next
 
The Peacocks will now prepare for their NSIC-opener with the Warriors of Winona State next Saturday in Fayette.