Upper Iowa defeated Winona State University by a 84-79 score in Saturday afternoon's contest. It was a team win for Upper Iowa as many Peacocks contributed to the first in-conference victory of the 2019-20 season. Upper Iowa improves to 4-3 (1-0 in NSIC play) on the year while Winona State falls to 3-4 (0-1). Upper Iowa's win ends a three-game win streak for the Warriors.Â
The Peacocks and Warriors went head to head in the first half until Upper Iowa broke off on a 10-0 run. The stretch was highlighted by five points from Joe Smoldt and put Upper Iowa up 33-25 with 5:25 left to play in the half. Neither team led by more than two scores up until that point. Upper Iowa ended the half on a high note as Jareese Williams sunk a half court shot as time expired. The three pointer put the Peacocks ahead 43-33, the largest lead of the game.
Williams had eight points in the first half and came down with four boards. He shot 3-6 (50%) from the field and 2-5 (40%) from beyond the arc. Smoldt had the hot hand in the first half. He scored a team high 10 points while shooting 4-7 (57.1%) from the field and 2-4 (50%) from long distance.
Upper Iowa's big first half lead can be attributed to their accurate shooting. Upper Iowa went 17-29 (58.6%) from the field and 8-16 (50%) from three compared to 13-33 (39.4%) and 3-15 (20%) marks by Winona State. The Peacocks and the Warriors were an even match in the paint as each team grabbed 17 rebounds apiece.
Winona State then took control of the game with 15:31 left to play in the second half. The Warriors went on an 18-4 run that put them ahead 67-60 at the 9:37 mark. The run featured 11 straight unanswered points and ended with three consecutive three pointers from Kevion Taylor. Taylor had 25 points and 17 rebounds on the day. However, he was shut down by the Peacock defense for the remainder of the game after the scoring stretch.
Upper Iowa then evened things up at 72 with 5:20 left to play after a 12-5 run. Five points from Smoldt again fueled the stretch for the Peacocks. Upper Iowa continued their strong play for the remainder of the game. UIU outscored WSU 12-7 in the final 5:02 thanks to strong play from Joshua Carter. Carter had six points and three rebounds in the final stretch for Upper Iowa, helping close out the Warriors in a 84-79 win for the Peacocks.
TOP PEACOCKS …Â
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Jake Hilmer had 16 points on the day, shooting 6-10 (60%) from the field and 2-3 (66.7%) from beyond the arc
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Joe Smoldt had 17 points after shooting 7-13 (53.8%) from the field. He additionally grabbed six rebounds and dished out a pair of assists
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Jareese Williams scored 15 points, grabbed a season-high eight rebounds and had two steals in the game
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Joshua Carter had 14 points shooting 7-13 (53.8%) from the field and grabbed five boards for the Peacocks
STATS OF THE GAME …Â
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Upper Iowa outshot Winona State 33-63 (52.4%) to 31-73 (42.5%) from the field
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The Peacocks outshot the Warriors 12-25 (48%) to 12-35 (34.3%) from three point range
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Upper Iowa (11) got to the free line nearly twice as many times as Winona State (6) however, Winona State's free throw percentage (83.3%) was higher than Upper Iowa's (54.5%)
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The Peacocks outscored the Warriors 18-3 on fast break opportunities
QUOTABLE ...
UP NEXT … Upper Iowa will face off against Wayne State University on Friday, Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. in Wayne, Neb. As always you can follow along via live options at UIUPeacocks.com/LIVE. The game will also broadcast live on KCRG-TV 9.2 and stream live on the NSIC app through Roku and Fire devices, as well as Apple and Android TV.
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