The Peacock men's basketball team overpowered in-state NAIA foe Waldorf College on Wednesday night, beating the Warriors 93-64. UIU made a season-high 17 three pointers on 40 attempts and forced Waldorf into 19 turnovers, while the Peacocks committed just three turnovers of their own.  

Upper Iowa used a quick start to jump out to a 12-0 lead as Waldorf began the game with three turnovers and four missed shots in its first seven possessions. Fast break buckets and three point shooting helped spread the lead to 22-6 just six minutes into the opening period. The Warriors then took a play out of the Peacock playbook and went on a 11-3 run of their own, utilizing the fast break to get right back into the game, 25-17.

"One thing we've been focusing on all preseason is the first five minutes of the game," said Head Coach Brooks McKowen. "We've struggled a little bit to start this year, but tonight we didn't. We got off to that early lead and just ran with it."

"Waldorf is a good basketball team," said McKowen. "They're going to make some runs back at you but our guys did a good job of stopping their runs and making big shots and continuing to defend."

Mid way through the first, UIU found its range. The Peacocks shot 10-of-24 from three point land in the opening 20 minutes, including three trifectas from Grant Lang, who led Upper Iowa with 13 points in the first half. In a back-and-forth affair, a total of 24 fast break points were scored in the half. Upper Iowa scored a majority of its 14 early while the Warriors got most of their 10 midway through the half to working their back into the game. Unfortunately for Waldorf, the Peacocks took a 52-36 lead into the break.

The second half saw more of the same from the Peacocks, forcing the Warriors into 10 turnovers and turning them into 16 points for UIU. Upper Iowa also continued to score on the break, adding 8 points in transition in the second 20 minutes.

The Warriors hung around early in the half, keeping the game within 15 points for the first eight minutes or so, but back-to-back three pointers from Lang and Jernell Hughes put UIU up by 20, 71-51. Those three point daggers were the start of a 15-0 run for the Peacocks, who saw their lead reach 30 with just under eight minutes remaining in the game. 

Upper Iowa had five players in double figures, led by Lang with 24 points, including 6-of-9 from three. Transfer Jarrod Gamble had his best game as a Peacock, scoring the first 5 points of the game and finishing with 12. Jace Hanna and Josh Weeber scored 12 and 11, respectively, continuing their streak of double digits scoring efforts to start the year. Jimmy Roth rounded out the top scorers with 10. Hanna added 7 rebounds and 5 assists, both tops for the Peacocks.

"I think it's going to be a different guy who leads us in scoring each night this season," said McKowen. "It already has been this year. We're comfortable with all of our guys scoring. But the thing I was most happy with tonight was our assist-to-turnover ratio. We ended up with 23 assists and only three turnovers. If we keep doing that, we're going to win a lot of games this year."

UIU returns to Dorman Gymnasium next for a battle against Missouri Western University on Monday, Nov. 24 at 7 p.m.