Joe Smoldt made the most of his second three-pointer of the night at Minnesota State University Moorhead on Saturday night. The 333^rd of his outstanding career in Peacock blue came from 25 feet on the right wing and went through the net with just 0.5 seconds to play. The three-pointer secured a 66-63 win for No. 13/14 Upper Iowa and improved their record to 17-3 overall and 11-3 in the Northern Sun Conference. MSU Moorhead falls to 10-9 overall and 5-5 in the NSIC.
 
Jake Hilmer (16 points) and Lucas Duax (14 points) combined for 30 points, while Smoldt added 12; Duax shot 7-8 from the field and pulled down five rebounds. Connor Duax grabbed a team-high seven boards off the bench and added four points. Cade Moritz and Max Duax each netted six points, while Dylan Jones chipped in four.
 
Gatdoar Kueth led the Dragons off the bench with 15 points, while Lorenzo McGhee netted 13 and Gavin Baumgartner added 10.
 
Throughout the first half, Upper Iowa took several three-point leads, but were never able to push their lead to more than one possession. MSU Moorhead continually pulled even and at times got ahead by a point. UIU's last three-point advantage came after Max and Connor Duax converted back-to-back layups to erase a slim Dragon lead and put the visitors ahead 36-33. The Dragons answered as they had all half with a bucket to cut the gap back to one, 36-35, heading into the halftime break.
 
Upper Iowa came out of the locker room with six straight points fueled by two layups from Lucas Duax and one from Nick Reid to get the Peacocks out in front 42-35. The Dragons slowed the game down and turned the contest into a half court affair with a four and a half minute 8-2 run that slimmed the margin back to one, 44-43, with 12 minutes to play.
 
The Peacocks broke their silence behind a jumper from Smoldt, a layup from Moritz and a three-pointer in transition from Hilmer to move ahead by six points, 51-45. The Dragons wouldn't go away though. UIU lived just a possession in front of their hosts until a Bryce Irsfeld three-pointer with 16 seconds to play tied the score at 63-63. Smoldt took the inbounds up into the front court, waved a screen away and then jab-stepped into the game winner. Over the final five minutes, Upper Iowa scored 13 points fueled by Lucas Duax, who scored eight points in crunch time.
 
The Peacocks will return to Fayette this coming Friday and Saturday for their final two NSIC cross-division games of the regular season. Upper Iowa will host Minot State University on Friday, Jan. 28 at 7:30 p.m. and the University of Mary on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 5:30 p.m. Both Minot State and UMary won a pair of games at home against Minnesota State University, Mankato and Concordia University, St. Paul.

  Read Full Article