Upper Iowa has played in enough close ball games this year that the Peacock players and coaches know not to hit the panic button. On Monday night, Upper Iowa trailed for most of the second half and fell behind by five points with six minutes to play, but the Peacocks didn't hit the panic button. Instead they ramped up their interior defense and cleaned up the issues that had plagued them on the glass all night. Suddenly, the Peacocks were in business and when the smoke cleared… UIU found themselves on the right side of a 17-4 run over the final six minutes for a 63-55 win in the first semifinal of the NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament.
 
The Peacocks fell behind 11-6 early in the first quarter after an Aarias Austin three-point play, but UIU stormed back to tie the game at 11 thanks to a quick 5-0 run prior to the first media timeout. Both defenses began to put the clamps down over the next few minutes as the score crawled up slowly. Jimmy Roth's layup at the 8:21 mark gave the Peacocks a 17-16 lead, but back-to-back buckets by Jay Knuth and and Charlie Brown pushed the Mavericks back out in front 21-17.  A 7-2 run by the Peacocks capped by Luke Lenhart's second three-pointer of the game put UIU ahead 26-25 with just over three minutes to play in the half. The lead grew to three points, 32-29, after a pair of driving layups by Kam Rowan and Dennis Austin III bracketed a Jon Fuqua make. The Mavericks missed three shots on their final possession and the Peacocks went to the locker room ahead by three, 32-29.
 
Upper Iowa shot 52% from the field in the first half led by Jordan Hay's 10 points, while Minnesota State took advantage of 8 offensive rebounds to claim a 12-0 advantage in second chance points. MSU was led by Fuqua, who scored 13 in the half.
 
After UIU scored the first basket of the second half, MSU went on an 11-0 run to take a 40-34 lead. Hay ended the scoring drought with a pair of free throws to cut the lead back to four heading into the first media timeout of the half. A pair of three-pointers from Lenhart over a four-minute span to cut the gap to one, 43-42. The Mavericks were able to push their advantage back to five, but a Roth jumper in the paint pulled the Peacocks back within one score, 47-44. Lenhart's fifth trifecta cut the gap to two, 51-49, with just under six minutes to play and Hay knocked down a pair of free throws to tie the game at 51-51 with 4:28 to play.
 
Roth converted a three-point play to extend UIU's run to 8-0 and pull UIU into the lead for just the second time in the second half. During the run, the Peacock defense held the Mavericks scoreless for three and a half minutes. The run kept going despite a Fuqua free throw for MSU and reached 14-1 as UIU took a 60- 52 lead on back to back to back layups by Hay, Carson Parker and Roth. A Cole Harper three-pointer for the Mavericks cut UIU's lead to five, 60-55, with 41 seconds to play. Jace Hanna stepped up to the free throw line and knocked down three of four in the final seconds to set the final margin at eight, 63-58, sending Upper Iowa to the championship game.
 
A huge part of the final UIU run, which registered as a 17-4 run over the final 6:02 of the game, was the defensive play of Hay and Roth inside and a pursuit of the ball off the defensive glass to limit the Maverick opportunities down the stretch.
 
Hay led the Peacocks in scoring and rebounding with 18 and 11 to notch his second double-double of the year. The Stanwood, Iowa product filled his stat sheet with 3 assists, a block and three steals as well.
 
Lenhart (15) and Roth (11) joined Hay in double figure scoring, while Parker added 8 points and 7 rebounds. Roth scored 9 of his 11 points in the second half and 5 of those points in the winning run.
 
Upper Iowa will play against the winner of the Augustana University and Southwest Minnesota State University semifinal game in Tuesday night's NSIC/Sanford Health Men's Basketball Tournament Championship at 7:30 p.m. at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.