The Upper Iowa Peacocks played one of their best halves of the season on Saturday night in Fayette as they defeated the Minot State Beavers in an NSIC cross-division matchup to earn their fifth straight win. UIU outscored their guests 50-30 en route to an 82-67 victory inside Dorman Gymnasium. The home team erased a halftime deficit to improve to 16-6 overall and 13-3 in the Northern Sun Conference. With the loss, Minot State falls to 10-12 and 6-10 in league play.
 
Dennis Austin III recorded his fourth career 20-point effort (and fourth of the season), finishing with a game-high 21 on 8-10 shooting. The redshirt sophomore converted all five free throw attempts as well and tallied six rebounds on the night. Redshirt senior Jordan Hay tallied 16 points and 4 rebounds on a perfect 5-5 from the field, and hit 6 of 7 foul shot attempts. Mitch Eighme led the bench with 13 points on 6-8 from the field, including a hammer dunk to propel a late Peacock run.
 
Upper Iowa scored the first six points on Saturday night, and gained two different 6-point leads throughout the first half, but their largest lead (7 points) came with five minutes remaining in the period, 27-20. However, Minot State used a quick 13-0 run to reverse the trend, and take a six-point lead with 2:20 left. The Beavers led 37-32 at halftime, marking the fourth consecutive night that UIU has trailed heading into the locker room, and would be the fourth straight win when trailing at the break.
 
After both teams shot 48% from the field in the first stanza, it was the Peacocks who came out hot in the second half. Hay, Austin III, and Carson Parker connected on jump shots to get the offense going, and Jimmy Roth connected on a three to tie the game at 42. With the game tied at 45, Hay converted five straight points to give UIU a four-point lead. And then, Eighme took over for the Peacocks.
 
The Waterloo, Iowa native, tallied a season-high 13, scored 8 straight Upper Iowa points, highlighted by a hammer dunk on an assist from Parker to give the home team an 11-point advantage. Luke Lenhart added a triple three minutes later to put the Peacocks up 15, and in essence end the game.
 
While the offense was finding its stride, the UIU defense was flexing its muscles in the second half as well. Upper Iowa held the Beavers to 36% shooting from the field (10-28). The Peacocks out-rebounded their guests 21-11 in the second half, forced six turnovers, and tallied four steals.
 
UIU shot 53% (31-59) from the field, but struggled from behind the arc (3-15). The Peacocks were stellar at the free throw line yet again, converting 17-20 (85%). Saturday marks the fifth time in the last seven games that UIU has made at least 80% of their foul shots. Upper Iowa outscored Minot State 50-20 in the paint for the game, and held a 19-8 advantage in points off turnovers en route to their fifth straight win. UIU has their second winning streak of at least five games, after winning six straight Nov. 25 to Dec. 10.
 
The Peacocks will go for six straight next weekend on the road in Aberdeen, S.D. and Moorhead, Minn. UIU will battle the Wolves of Northern State University on Friday night at 8 p.m. before squaring off with the #16 Dragons of Minnesota State University Moorhead on Saturday night at 6 p.m.