The No. 15 Lions put together a monster second half with two big runs to pull away from the Peacocks in the teams' final non-conference game of the season. Upper Iowa fell to 5-6 overall after the loss, while Missouri Southern State University improved to 10-1. UIU and MSSU were tied at halftime, but the home team put nearly 70 points on the board in the final twenty minutes to claim the win.

Missouri Southern State came out on fire and knocked down 7 of their first 9 shots including 5 of 7 from beyond the three-point arc. The Lions pounced on a 19-5 lead by the first media timeout five minutes into the opening half highlighted by 11 points from Reggie Tharp. The opening run began with a 13-0 outburst off the jump ball. After four more points by the home team, the Peacocks found themselves trailing by 18 points, 23-5, but Upper Iowa began to battle back thanks to their defense.
 
Over the final thirteen and a half minutes of the first half, the Peacock defense forced the Lions into six turnovers and 0 of 7 shooting from deep. While the defense began to give MSSU trouble on one end, the UIU offense dialed up their shooting on the other end. Led by Kyle Haber and Chris Olson, the Peacocks converted 13 of their 22 attempts including 5 of 8 from three-point range. UIU closed the half on a 10-0 run and outscored their hosts 31-15 over the final thirteen minutes to head to the locker room tied at 36-all.
 
After a Haber lay in pulled the Peacocks within one, 45-44, just two minutes into the second half, the Lions pushed their lead back to double figures, 60-44, with a 15-0 run fueled by 9 points from Cam Martin. The run lasted four minutes and finally stopped on a Haber three-pointer. Another MSSU outburst, this time a 15-4, three-minute run, increased the gap from sixteen to twenty-seven, 82-55, with nine minutes to play. The Lions sank four more three-pointers during the run to put the game away.
 
UIU outscored Missouri Southern State by nine, 35-26, over the final nine minutes and knocked down 12 of their 17 shots, but the deficit was too much to overcome. Chris Olson scored 12 points in the final nine minutes. In the end, MSSU outscored Upper Iowa 69-54 in the second half to claim the 105-90 non-conference victory.
 
Martin led the Lions with 37 points and 10 rebounds thanks to 10 of 14 shooting from the floor and 17 of 18 at the charity stripe. Parker Jennings scored 18 off the bench with five three-pointers. Tharp added 14, Enis Memic dropped in 12 and Kinzer Lambert netted 11.
 
Haber paced the Peacock offense with 22 points and 9 rebounds, while Olson dropped in 20 off the bench and added 5 assists. Jareese Williams netted 19 points, but no other Peacock scored more than six points.
 
Upper Iowa will host Winona State University on Dec. 30 in Fayette at 4 p.m.