The Peacocks took down the Tigers of Iowa Wesleyan University 93-69 in Tuesday afternoon's home opener. The game was Upper Iowa largest win of the year and their second consecutive win by double digits. Upper Iowa improves to 3-2 on the year with just one game remaining before the start of conference play. Iowa Wesleyan moves to 2-3 in 2019-20 after the loss. 

Neither team led by more than two scores to start the game until Upper Iowa went up 25-17 with 10:09 to play left in the first half. Upper Iowa maintained the lead for the rest of the half going ahead by as many as 13. The Peacocks went up 48-35 with 2:17 remaining in the half after UIU went on an 11-1 run fueled by seven points from Joshua Carter and a pair of layups from Lucas Duax. Iowa Wesleyan crawled back into the game, going an 11-3 run to end the half 51-46 in favor of Upper Iowa.

The Peacocks platoon of freshman point guards, Jake Hilmer and Lucas Duax led the way for Upper Iowa in the first half. Duax had 12 points, shooting 6-7 (85.7%) from the field along with two rebounds and two assists. Hilmer had 10 points, shooting 4-6 (66.7%) from field and 2-3 (66.7%) from three point range as well as grabbing three rebounds and dishing two assists in the half. While carrying the load for the Peacocks, neither player committed a turnover in the first half.

Upper Iowa outscored Iowa Wesleyan in the paint 30 to eight in the first half. The Peacocks committed just two turnovers compared to 10 from the Tigers.

Upper Iowa came out of halftime red hot starting out on a 24-6 run that put UIU up 75-52 with 12:04 to play. The run was highlighted by five new Peacocks, Dylan Jones, Jake Hilmer, Joshua Carter, Lucas Duax, and Max Duax  all putting up four points a piece during the stretch. Iowa Wesleyan couldn't recover from dominant performance the Peacocks put on during the run resulting in the 93-69 win for the Peacocks. 

Upper Iowa outshot Iowa Wesleyan 51.3% to 35.7% after some key defensive adjustments at halftime. The Peacocks five new faces who contributed to the key second half run combined for 68 points in the game: Hilmer (18), Carter (17), L.Duax (16), Jones (9), M.Duax (8).

PEACOCK OF THE GAME … Jake Hilmer had team highs of 18 points and six assists. He additionally grabbed five rebounds, shot 7-12 (58.3%) from the field and had a steal on the day.

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STATS OF THE GAME … 

• Upper Iowa out scored Iowa Wesleyan in the paint 68 to 20

• The Peacocks out shot the Tigers 52.6% to 43.1% from the field

• Upper Iowa outrebounded Iowa Wesleyan 40 to 33

• The Peacocks had 13 steals on the day compared to four from Iowa Wesleyan

• Jake Hilmer's six assists increases his assists per game average to 5.2 and secures his third place spot in the NSIC rankings

• Lucas Duax was 8-9 (88.9%) from the field, he had 16 points and five rebounds in the game

• Upper Iowa had three double digit scorers: Hilmer (18), Carter (17) and L.Duax (16)

UP NEXT … Upper Iowa will host Missouri Southern State University on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1 p.m. for their last non-conference game of the 2019-20 season. As always you can follow along via live options at UIUPeacocks.com/LIVE.