The Golden Bears of Concordia University, St, Paul stifled the Peacock offense in the first half of Friday night's Northern Sun Conference match up in Fayette to secure a 71-55 win to split the season series with Upper Iowa.  Lauren Shifflett led the Golden Bears with 22 points  to fuel the win and improve the team's record to 12-13 overall and 8-11 in the NSIC.  Whitney Kieffer paced the Peacocks with 20 points as the team fell to 5-20 overall and 4-15 in the conference.

Upper Iowa had a pair of leads in the first quarter; once at 7-4 and again at 11-9, but Shifflett put the final points on the scoreboard during the final minute of the first quarter with an old-fashioned three-point play to push the Golden Bears into a 12-11 lead at the break.  With her second made field goal of the first quarter, Kieffer reached the 1,700-point mark in her storied career.  In the second quarter, Concordia was able to slowly move their margin to five points, 23-18, by the midway point of the quarter, and then the visitors outscored the hosts 11-4 over the final four and a half minutes taking a 32-22 lead into the break.

The Peacocks battled back in the third quarter cutting the gap to six points, 38-32, after the first five minutes.  Upper Iowa's rally was highlighted by a pair of back-to-back scores by Carly Pagel and Aleesha Cleaver.  Concordia didn't allow momentum to stay with the home team for long though.  The Golden Bears used a 12-3 run in just three minutes to push their lead back to fifteen, 50-35.  Upper Iowa couldn't launch anymore rallies in the fourth quarter as the visitors pushed their lead to a high of twenty, 69-49, with less than two minutes to play.  UIU scored six of the game's final eight points to set the final margin at 71-55.

Concordia owned a pair of huge advantages in the game including points off turnovers (21-4) and fastbreak points (19-2). The Golden Bears made the most of UIU's 19 turnovers, while the Peacocks forced 15 turnovers but didn't take advantage of the opportunities.

In addition to Kieffer's 20 points, Pagel added 12 points and Karlee Grabau netted 10.  Sarah Benson only scored three points, but she led the Peacocks in rebounding with 8 including 4 offensive boards.  Pagel chipped in 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

The Peacocks will host the Mavericks of Minnesota State University, Mankato on Saturday evening at 4 p.m. in the team's final home game of the 2015-16 regular season.  UIU's seniors, Aleesha Cleaver, Whitney Kieffer and Tatiana Grayer, will all be recognized following the game on Saturday.