The Upper Iowa men's basketball dropped an overtime nail-biter 99-95 to the MSU Moorhead Dragons on Saturday night in Dorman Gym. The Peacocks' loss drops UIU to 6-8 on the year and 3-5 against NSIC competition.
The Peacocks put together a complete team effort on offense in the first half with eight of their nine players who saw action recorded at least three points. With nine points apiece in the first half, the Peacocks were led by
Kyle Haber and
Munachiso Okonkwo, who threw down a monstrous one hand jam that fired up the Fayette faithful. Upper Iowa forced the Dragons to cough up the ball 8 times in the first half and turned those around for 12 points. The Peacocks' three-point offense got going once again with seven first half three-pointers for a 58.3 three-point percentage. The Dragons held a slight edge at the half, going into the break with a 45-42 advantage.
MSU Moorhead came out of the locker room and got right to work, kicking off a 14-5 run to open the second half. The Peacocks were quick to answer, immediately getting back into the mix of things with a 20-4 run that saw Upper Iowa score 14 unanswered points. The impressive run by UIU put the Peacocks back in the driver's seat with a 69-63 lead. While the first half saw Mu and Haber drive UIU's offense, the second half effort was powered by
Joe Smoldt who tallied 13 second half points and
Chris Olson who added 10 of his own. After getting back on top, the Peacocks were able to maintain the lead until MSU Moorhead threw up a last second three off of an offensive rebound to even the score at 87-87 to send the game to overtime.
Both sides couldn't connect in the first two minutes of overtime, starting the extra period a collective 0-7 between the two teams. That was until MSU Moorhead's Johnny Beeninga knocked down a three to put the Dragons on top for the first time since the 10-minute mark of the second half. Upper Iowa's
Chris Olson was there to answer, taking the ball up the floor and knocking down a three for the Peacocks to even things up once again. A jumper from
Jareese Williams less than a minute later put the Peacocks ahead but the Dragons were there to answer with five unanswered points and would not relinquish the lead. MSU Moorhead would maintain the advantage through the final seconds of overtime and wrapped up the game on top 99-95.
The Upper Iowa loss was not a result of lack of offense as the Peacocks had three players knocking on the door of 20-point nights. Smoldt and Olson lead the Peacock scorers with 19 points each followed closely by Mu with 18 and Haber with 14. Mu also hauled in 11 boards to earn his third double-double of the year. In addition to his 19 points, Smoldt dealt out six assists and pulled in 6 boards for UIU.
The Peacocks' three-point offense was firing once again on Saturday night, knocking down 15 shots from beyond the arc. Upper Iowa finished the game shooting 53.6 percent from three-point land and proved why they are one of the top three-point offenses in the NSIC.
Upper Iowa will look to rebound as they hit the road for a pair of NSIC South matchups. The Peacocks will take on Augustana for a Friday night game before heading to Wayne State for Saturday's matchup against the Wildcats.
