The Upper Iowa University women's basketball team battled hard in a competitive game against Wayne State College, but the Peacocks were unable to complete a comeback against the Wildcats in their first game of the weekend double-header. The teams kept it close in the first quarter, but after runs by both sides in the second the Wildcats finished the first half with an 11-point lead. The Peacocks kept the Wildcats from extending their lead in the second half and outscored Wayne State 41-35 in the last two quarters but would ultimately fall by a score of 84-79. WSC improves to 3-4 (2-3 NSIC) while UIU drops to 1-6 (0-5 NSIC).

Turning Points…

The score was knotted at 16 apiece at the 3:53 mark in the first quarter, but the Wildcats used a 12-3 run that extended to their first make in the second quarter to build a 9-point lead. Wayne State would push that lead to 12 points with 5:29 to go in the second before Upper Iowa cut the Wildcat advantage to 3 at 38-35 late in the second quarter. The 11-2 UIU run included a perfect 4-4 shooting stretch where three different Peacocks hit a shot from behind the 3PT line. The pattern of scoring runs would continue as the Wildcats rattled off an 11-3 run to end the first half of play and give them an 11-point lead at the break.

The Peacocks were able bring their deficit down to five on multiple occasions in the third period and outscored WSC 19-15 in that quarter, but they were unable to narrow the gap any more than that before the start of the fourth. Upper Iowa pulled to within three points at 74-71 during the final period. Lydia Haack and Brooke Evenson led the way and scored four points apiece over the 8-4 run that saw the Peacocks get as close as they would come late in the fourth, but UIU came up just short in the end of their 84-79 loss.

Peacock Leaders…

Evenson led the Peacocks by scoring a team-high 18 points while adding 7 rebounds. She shot 7-12 (58.3%) from the field and 3-6 (50.0%) from behind the arc. She scored 13 of her 18 points in the second half to help the UIU comeback effort.

Lexie Lodermeier finished with a near double-double after providing UIU with 9 points and 9 rebounds.

Haack scored 11 points while dishing out a team-high 6 assists. She added 3 rebounds and also converted 5 of 6 (83.3%) shots from the charity stripe. 

Wildcat Leaders…

Halley Busse powered the Wildcats in the first half, scoring eleven more points than the next leading scorer and finishing with 18 in the first 20 minutes. She finished with game-highs of 23 points and 8 assists while adding 5 rebounds as well.

Erin Norling notched 10 second-half points and finished with 17 on the game. She pulled down a team-high 9 rebounds and contributed 4 assists and 2 blocks. 

Josey Ryan and Autumn Mlinar each scored in double figures, recording 15 and 12 points respectively. 

Up Next…

The Peacocks come back to Dorman Memorial Gymnasium for game two of their weekend double-header against the Wildcats at 2 p.m. on Jan. 23.