Game Notes - Upper Iowa || Sioux Falls || Southwest Minnesota State || Northern Sun

LIVE OPTION LINKS

Game # 17
Friday || Jan. 17
at Sioux Falls - Live Stats | Live Video | Tickets
Northern Sun Conference Game
Stewart Center || Sioux Falls, South Dakota || 8 p.m.

Game # 18
Saturday || Jan. 18
at Southwest Minnesota State - Live Stats | Live Video | Tickets
Northern Sun Conference Game
R.A. Facility || Marshall, Minnesota || 7 p.m.

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THIS WEEKEND IN MEN'S BASKETBALL... After two weeks of facing NSIC-North opponents, Upper Iowa will get back into the teeth of their NSIC-South schedule as they hit the road this Friday. UIU will head west to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to face the Cougars of USF (6-8, 3-7 NSIC) in the Stewart Center at 8 p.m. A night later, the Peacocks will face the always-dangerous Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State (10-6, 7-3 NSIC) in Marshall, Minnesota at 7 p.m.

LEADING THE COUGARS... Charles Ward (12 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 1.5 apg), Derek Brown (11.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.2 spg), Jordan Stotts (11.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg)

LEADING THE MUSTANGS... Nick Smith (11.8 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 1.5 bpg), Vinard Birch (10.9 ppg, 4.3 apg), Matt Zager (10.8 ppg, 1.6 spg), Shaun Condon (10.6 ppg)

THE SERIES... UIU and USF have met only four times in Division II play, but the Peacocks hold a 3-1 lead in the series including three straight wins over the Cougars. In those wins, UIU is averaging 38 free-throw attempts and 83 points per game. The Peacocks earned a 96-87 victory at home over USF back on Dec. 14 of 2013. Meanwhile, SMSU holds a dominating 11-2 series lead against UIU over the past seven seasons, The Peacocks last win over the Mustangs came in the 2010-11, 75-74, at home in OT. UIU has dropped its past three matchups with SMSU.

JUST GO WITH THE FLOW, "JOE-Y"... With just under two minutes left in regulation and his team down by one (68-67) against U-Mary, redshirt-senior Joey Woods took over and led his team to victory. The Naples, Florida scored 12 straight points and finished with a career-high 26 as UIU squeaked out a 79-71 win. Thanks to his record-setting night, Woods moved up to 7th place in the NSIC in scoring (16.1 ppg), while also ranking 2nd in passing with 4.87 assists per game and15th in field goal percentage (.524). Woods also gets the job done on defense ranking 10th in the league with 1.6 steals per game.

FANTASTIC FRESHMEN... Last year's recruiting class has made a tremendous impact on the UIU program, already! The five freshmen combined for 57 of the Peacock's 88 points against Minot State on Friday night, while scoring 21 on Saturday. Josh Weeber and Jimmy Roth are both averaging double-figures this season for UIU with Weeber ranking 17th in the conference (12.9 ppg).

MERGING ONTO I-80... Saturday's victory over U-Mary was the first win for UIU when the team didn't score more than 80 points. The Peacocks are 6-3 when scoring more than 80 points during a game.

LAST WEEK...
For the Cougars... USF's struggles outside the Stewart Center continued last weekend, as the Cougars dropped league contests at Minnesota-Duluth and St. Cloud State. On Friday night, the Cougars had no answer for the UMD senior guard duo of Peter Crawford (34 points) and Jordan Reetz (30), who combined to score as many points as the entire USF squad as UMD rolled to an 86-64 victory to improve to 6-0 at home. Jordan Stotts led USF with 13 points finishing 5-of-8 from the field, while Mahlon Jones had 11 points and Charles Ward and Mack Johnson each scored eight. USF closed out the weekend with an 85-73 loss to the Huskies in front of an announced crowd of 1,501 in Halenbeck Hall. The Cougars — who led 10-2 early— shot 47.1 percent (51.9 percent in the second half) — but fell to 0-6 on the road thanks in large part to 16 turnovers that led to 23 points for St. Cloud State (11-3, 7-3), which improved to 8-0 at home and led the majority of the game despite shooting just 39.3 percent in the contest. 

For the Mustangs... SMSU's senior guard Vinard Birch averaged 13.5 points, 5.0 assists and 1.5 rebounds, while shooting 12 of 16 (75.0) from the from the field in SMSU's two-game road split versus St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth. In Friday's 91-83 loss to St. Cloud State, Birch scored 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting with a game-high five assists. On Saturday, Birch scored 13 points on 6 of 7 shooting with five assists to pace SMSU to an 87-62 win over UMD. Birch leads SMSU with 70 assists on the season and is shooting 57 percent from the field and averaging 10.9 ppg. He has recorded 339 career assists – ranking second in school history – and is three shy of tying the school record.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND... If you can't make the trek to South Dakota or Minnesota this weekend, then catch all of the action live from the comfort of your home. Find the links above for live stats and live video provided by USF and SMSU.