On Friday night in Fayette, basketball fans were treated to a tremendous defensive effort out of both the No. 19/21 Peacocks and the Mustangs of Southwest Minnesota State. The Upper Iowa men's team was able to fight through the SMSU defense and produce a 67-56 win to improve to 21-4 on the season and 15-4 in the NSIC. Southwest Minnesota State dropped to 12-10 overall and 8-9 in the conference after the loss.
 
Four Peacocks reached double figures in the scoring column led by Joe Smoldt's 14 points. Lucas Duax chipped in 12 points, while Nick Reid and Dylan Jones each posted 10 points and 7 rebounds apiece. Upper Iowa shot 39.2% (20-51) on the night including 32% (8-25) from three, but took advantage of their trips to the charity stripe especially down the stretch to shoot 76% (19-25).
 
Dunwa Omot led the Mustangs with 17 points fueled by three three-pointers and 4-5 shooting at the free throw line. Kenny Byers, SMSU's leading scorer, saw a heavy dose of Lucas and Max Duax and Reid and the trio forced him into only four points on 1-9 shooting.
 
Both teams had to grind through the opening nine minutes of the game against suffocating pressure supplied by the defenses. UIU had the upper hand 8-2 when SMSU made their first field goal of the game nine minutes into the action. After the jump shot went down, Upper Iowa used a 12-2 to take a 20-6 lead with just over six minutes to play. The run saw five Peacocks score including three-pointers from Smoldt and Max Duax, while SMSU was just 1-8 from the floor with three turnovers.
 
The lead grew to 16 points, 30-14, after Reid sank all three free throws after being hit on an attempt from deep on the left side. The Mustangs closed the half with a slim 5-3 advantage to cut the margin back to 14 at halftime, 33-19.
 
Early in the second half, back-to-back layups for Dylan Jones allowed the Peacocks to score their largest lead of the day at 19 points, 40-21.
 
The Mustangs rallied midway through the second half thanks to a 14-6 run that spanned nearly three minutes. At the end of the big run, which was fueled by three UIU turnovers, the Mustangs had pulled within nine, 52-43, with nine and a half minutes to go.
 
The home team didn't waiver though; instead answering with a 13-5 run paced by six points from Lucas Duax and scores by four other Peacock players. When the dust settled, UIU had pushed their lead back to 17 points, 65-48, with 3:13 showing on the clock.
 
The Mustangs outscored their hosts 8-2 over the final minutes to cut into the Upper Iowa final margin of victory, but UIU came away with the 67-56 win to notch their NSIC-high 15th conference win of the season.
 
The Peacocks will host the University of Sioux Falls on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. The team will be recognizing and thanking their eight seniors between the women and men's double header.

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