The Peacock women's basketball team celebrated Senior Night with an upset of Concordia University, St. Paul in the team's final home game of the 2016-17 season. Upper Iowa used defense and solid shooting at the free throw line to earn a 51-43 Northern Sun victory. The Peacocks improved to 4-20 overall and 4-16 in the NSIC, while the Golden Bears dropped to 17-9 and 13-7 in the conference. UIU honored four seniors (Sarah Benson, Emily Gustafsen, Sam Ofstad and Carly Pagel) following their big win over Concordia-St. Paul.

Head Coach Micha Thompson, who is closing out her first year, packed the Peacock defense in a zone and protected the paint as best they could against Concordia's center, Caitlyn Russell, who had been named the NSIC South Division Player of the Week in each of the last three weeks. The game plan paid off as Russell scored just 8 points on the night and the rest of the Golden Bears settled for jumpers including 33 from beyond the three-point line. CSP only converted 5 makes on their long range attempts and didn't draw a single foul shot in the game. 

The visitors got out to a quick 5-0 lead, but Upper Iowa hung tough and tied the game at 11-11 when Haley Martin knocked down a trifecta from the top of the key. Prior to Martin's three, the Peacocks got a pair of scores out of Carly Pagel and Blair Klostermann. Five straight points by Klostermann gave UIU a 16-13 lead and a Blake Bergren shot from downtown put UIU ahead 19-15 at the first quarter break.

UIU pushed the lead to six, 21-15, with the first basket of the second quarter, but the Golden Bears clawed back outscoring their hosts 14-5 for the remainder of the quarter to take a three-point lead, 29-26, into the locker room at halftime. 

The Peacock defense was on top of things in the third quarter and allowed CSP to just five points while limiting the second chances to just two in the period. While the UIU defense was holding their guests down, the offense started to find its way. Pagel, Klostermann and Sam Ofstad all scored in the frame and a three-pointer from Ofstad with just under three minutes to play in the third set the score at 38-34. 

Upper Iowa was leading by the same score at the start of the fourth quarter and after the Golden Bears cut the gap to just two, 40-38, the team scored five straight on a layup by Pagel and a three-pointer by Madi Meier. The lead continued to hover between five and eight points until the final horn.

In the end, the Peacocks took advantage of their 11-13 shooting at the charity stripe while keeping the Golden Bears away from the free throw line. 

Pagel scored a team-high 15 points and grabbed 8 rebounds as well. Klostermann scored 14 and pulled down 2 rebounds.Ofstad netted 8 points, pulled down 4 rebounds and handed out 3 assists.

Upper Iowa will head out on the road for their regular season finales next Friday and Saturday at Wayne State College on Friday at 6 p.m. and at Augustana University on Saturday at 4 p.m.