THIS WEEK IN PEACOCK WOMEN'S HOOPS… UIU will travel to Aberdeen, S.D. for the first round of the NSIC/Sanford Health Women's Basketball Tournament. Upper Iowa, the No. 7 seed from the South Division, will match up with Northern State, the No. 2 seed from the North Division, at 6 p.m. at the Wachs Arena. Northern State won the only match up of the two teams this season and has claimed victory in all but one of the 17 games in the series history. UIU's win over the Wolves came on Jan. 26, 2008 when Christa Hammel became UIU's tenth 1,000-point club member and the Peacocks put together an 80-59 victory.
 
ROAD TO SIOUX FALLS… The 2017 NSIC/Sanford Health Women's Basketball Tournament bracket was released Saturday evening as the 22-game conference regular season concluded. MSU Moorhead (23-3, 20-2 NSIC) won the NSIC Overall and North Division Championships and is the top seed in the north division while Augustana (22-7, 17-5 NSIC) captured the No. 1 seed in the south division. The top four seeds in each division host the 5-8 seeds from the opposite division on Wednesday, February 22.  The quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games will all take place this coming weekend at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
 
PEACOCK REGULAR SEASON LEADERS… Upper Iowa was led in the regular season in scoring by sophomore guard Blair Klostermann. The Dyersville, Iowa native averaged 17.6 points per game before an injury ended her season early. Peacock Seniors, Carly Pagel averaged 10.1 points per game, reaching 1,000 career points against Wayne State on January 21st in Fayette. The Sumner, Iowa native led UIU last weekend with 11 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Ofstad dished out 99 assists during the regular season while averaging 7.7 points per game. The Hurley, Wisconsin native chipped in 6 points, 4 assists and 3 boards a contest last weekend against Augustana and Wayne State.

WOLVES HOWL IN ABERDEEN... UIU and NSU met on Feb. 3 at the Wachs Arena on the campus of Northern State where the home team dominated the glass picking up a huge advantage in rebounds and second chance points to earn an 86-63 victory over their guests. After the teams played a tightly-contested opening six and a half minutes, Northern State started the second quarter on an 8-0 run to make it a 26-17 lead. Upper Iowa cut a 10-point deficit to one score with a 7-0 run, but the Wolves came right back with a 9-0 run of their own to take a 41-29 lead at the break. Both teams' offenses came out hitting on all cylinders in the third quarter. The squads both scored 24 points in the frame. A 7-1 run by the Peacocks in the first minute and a half cut the gap to just six points, 42-36, but Northern State recovered and then outscored UIU 21-7 over a six-minute timespan to move out to a 60-43 lead. An 8-1 run over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter put the game out of reach for UIU as the home team opened up their lead to nineteen. Free throws and a final three-pointer from the Wolves gave Northern State the twenty-three point win, 86-63.
 
NSIC STRONG IN FIRST NCAA REGIONAL POLL... The first edition of the NCAA Division II women's basketball regional rankings were released last Wednesday and the NSIC has four of the top ten teams in the central region.  MSU Moorhead ranks fourth followed by Augustana in eighth.  Wayne State and Winona State were ninth and tenth in the first of three rankings. The NSIC, the Great American Conference (GAC) and the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) make up the 42-team NCAA Central Region again this year.  The top eight teams in the region advance to the NCAA Regional Tournament on March 10-11, 13.