The Upper Iowa men's basketball team won their second straight NSIC game as
Jareese Williams leads the Peacocks past Minnesota State Mankato 80-74. Saturday nights victory brings the Peacocks to 5-5 on the season and 2-3 against NSIC competition while the Mavericks drop to 7-3 and 4-1.
The first half saw the Peacocks get out to a slow start as the Mavericks grabbed the first seven points to start the game. The two sides traded a few buckets and Upper Iowa found themselves in an 11-point hole before the offense started to get hot. The Peacocks took advantage of a 14-2 run to put themselves back on top of the Mavericks. Both sides pieced together solid first halves, but all eyes were on the shootout between Williams and Minnesota State's Cameron Kirksey. Williams recorded 15 first half points for the Peacocks while Kirksey put up 16 to bring the score to at the end of the half to 32-34 in the Mavericks' favor.
While Williams paced the Peacock offense in the first half,
Joe Smoldt found his stroke in the second half to spur Upper Iowa's offense. The Mavericks hit the first bucket coming out of the locker room, but the Peacocks answered with a 15-2 run thanks to 8 points from Smoldt and a pair of threes from
Kyle Haber. The second half saw the lead change hands seven times and the score knotted twice. With the Peacocks trailing 57-59, they took advantage of a 15-4 run to give themselves a lead that they would not let go of and eventually finished the game 80-74.
Despite Smoldt's impressive 15-point second half, it was not enough to surpass Williams as Upper Iowa's top scorer for the night. Williams finished the game with 22 points, only slightly ahead of Smoldt's 18.
Smoldt was Upper Iowa's top shooter from beyond the arc against the Mavericks, knocking down 5 of the Peacocks' 15 three-pointers. The win against Minnesota State marks the second consecutive game where the Peacocks buried 15 three-point attempts and their fourth time accomplishing that feat this season.
The Peacocks finished the game shooting 41.7 percent from the floor. From beyond the arc, Upper Iowa hit an impressive 44.1 percent of their shots compared to their opponents who hit just 25.8 percent of their deep shots.
The Peacocks will take the floor one more time before the holiday break, taking on Missouri Southern State University on Wednesday at noon.
