The Peacock women's basketball team battled through a tough shooting game without a pair of starters due to injury, but still came out on top of the Mountaineers of Western State Colorado University, 77-68. Upper Iowa poured in 30 of their 77 points at the charity stripe and won the battle of the boards by 15 to open the season 1-0 at the Al Kaly Shrine Classic hosted by Colorado State University-Pueblo.
Upper Iowa took advantage of their opportunities at the free throw line converting 30 of their 37 attempts (81%) and posted a 50-35 advantage in rebounds to earn the victory. Playing without
Whitney Kieffer and
Aleesha Cleaver due to injury, the Peacocks were led by
Lindsay Carroll's 26 points. Carroll hit four shots including three triples, but the senior hit 15 of 19 shots at the free throw line.
"Our extra effort tonight helped to secure the victory," said Head Coach Carol Russell. "We had different players step up at the right time. Lindsay [Carroll] did a great job getting to the free throw line and Emily [Gustafson] and Olivia [Winkler] played some great minutes in the paint. Laura [TerHark] hit a huge three as the 30-second clock went off to secure the win. Going forward we have to take better care of he ball, but without Kieffer and Cleaver on the floor, I was happy with our guards who stepped up."
Emily Gustafson added 16 points including 8 of 9 shooting at the charity stripe; the sophomore post pulled down a team high 12 rebounds for a double-double. Olivia Winkler netted 13 points on five field goals and snared 8 rebounds. Laura TerHark chipped in 8 points, while Lauren Buck struggled shooting the ball, but still grabbed 9 rebounds. Buck, TerHark and Carroll each handed out 4 assists, while Gustafson was huge on defense with 4 blocks and 3 steals in the paint.
As a team, the Peacocks shot 37% (20-54) from the floor and committed 27 turnovers, but forced the Mountaineers into 18 turnovers and a 38.5% (25-65) shooting percentage.
Upper Iowa jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead, but the Mountaineers slowly chipped away and took a one-point lead, 20-19. Western State held a three-point lead, 27-24, with 3:27 on the clock in the first half, but the Peacocks mounted a 16-4 run that included seven points by Gustafson and a big trifecta from freshman Blake Bergren. The UIU rally gave the team a nine-point lead, 40-31, at halftime.
Western State opened the second half with a 14-6 run of their own to pull within one, 46-45, just six minutes into the period. Upper Iowa answered with a jumper by Olivia Meier and a three-pointer from TerHark. As the clock moved toward eight minutes to play, Carroll hit a layup and a three-pointer on back-to-back possessions to push the lead to nine, 61-52. The Mountaineers made one last run at the Peacocks closing the gap to just three points on two occassions. With just one minute to play and leading by only three, 67-64, TerHark knocked down a three-pointer just before the shot clock sounded to push the margin back to six and secure the win for Upper Iowa. UIU hit seven of their final eight free throws including five of six by Carroll.
The Peacocks will tangle with the ThunderWolves of Colorado State-Pueblo tomorrow evening at 5 p.m. MST, or 6 p.m. CST.
