Upper Iowa played host to the Huskies of St. Cloud State University on Saturday night in Dorman. St. Cloud and Upper Iowa played close to the midway point of the third quarter, but the visitors pushed away with a run in the third quarter for a 72-60 victory. After the loss, the Peacocks fall to 5-19 overall and 4-14 in the Northern Sun. SCSU improved to 13-9 overall and 12-6 in the conference.
The Huskies used a 10-1 run over the final three and a half minutes of the first quarter to snap a 9-9 tie and claim a nine-point advantage at the break. Upper Iowa came out strong over the opening four minutes of the second quarter to cut the gap to just one point, 22-21, fueled by an 11-2 run. The Peacock outburst was highlighted by scores by five different Peacocks four of which came off the bench. St. Cloud State regrouped behind Chelsea Nooker, who finished the half with 14 points on 6-9 shooting, to push their lead back to eight points, 37-29, with under a minute to play in the half.
Whitney Kieffer scored a tough layup on the baseline and
Aleesha Cleaver put home a pair of free throws to close the halftime margin to just four points, 37-33, as the teams headed down to the locker room.
St. Cloud State came out of the locker room and pushed the lead to nine, 43-34, but Upper Iowa pulled within two, 43-41, with 4:46 to play in the quarter thanks to a 7-0 run highlighted by a three-point play from
Sam Ofstad. The Huskies closed out the quarter by outscoring Upper Iowa 9-1 to claim a 52-42 advantage heading into the final quarter. The lead balooned to sixteen points, 61-45, just two and a half minutes into the fourth as the visitors run reached 18-4.over more than seven minutes of game time. UIU couldn't push the margin back to single digits over the remainder of the game as the home team fell 72-60.
The Huskies had three players combine for 63 of their 72 points including 23 from Karissa LeCaptain and 20 points from both Betsy MacDonald and Chelsea Nooker.
Whitney Kieffer led the Peacocks with 13 points, while Ofstad added 9 points,
Karlee Grabau and
Aleesha Cleaver each scored 8 and
Carly Pagel chipped in 7. UIU won the rebounding battle 39-35 led by seven boards by both Kieffer and Cleaver. Ofstad and Cleaver each handed out 4 assists as well.
Upper Iowa will remain at home next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12-13, for their final two home games of the regular season. The Peacocks will welcome the Golden Bears of Concordia University, St. Paul on Friday at 6 p.m. for Play4Kay Night and the Mavericks of Minnesota State University, Mankato on Saturday at 4 p.m. for Senior Night.
