The Peacock women's basketball team lost a 60-46 decision at home on Friday night in the team's first home game of 2018. Upper Iowa played tough defense and limited the University of Sioux Falls' offense on the night, but couldn't come up with the big shots on the offensive side to finish the upset bid. The Cougars got away with the victory to improve to 9-4 overall and 6-3 in the conference, while UIU fell to 2-13 overall and 0-9 in the NSIC.

Upper Iowa and Sioux Falls tied in the first quarter 9-9 and again in the fourth quarter 18-18 and the Peacocks won the third quarter 12-11, but the Cougars dominated the second quarter and it proved to be the difference in the game. USF won the second quarter 22-7 thanks to 53% shooting and big advantages in points in the paint (16-4), points off turnovers (10-0) and fast break points (10-0). While the Sioux Falls offense was cruising through the second quarter, the Peacock offense knocked down only 3 of their 12 shots and handed over 6 turnovers as well.

The Peacocks were trailing 42-28 when the fourth quarter started; Upper Iowa used a 10-2 run over the first five minutes to cut the gap to six points, 44-38. Angelica De Paulo scored all 10 points in the run including a pair of trifectas. A minute later Ashley Rosenstiel converted an old-fashioned three-point play to cut the margin to five, 47-42, with four and a half minutes to play. Sioux Falls buckled down and controlled the final minutes outscoring the Peacocks 13-4 to secure the 60-46 win in Fayette.

De Paulo led the team in scoring with 21 points, while Natalie Dinius added 10 points. Haley Martin grabbed a team-high 8 rebounds. The Peacocks were without four players in tonight's game due to illness or injury.

Upper Iowa will be back in Dorman Gym on Saturday for a 4 p.m. tip against the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State University.