The No. 14/12 Peacocks got out to a fast start, but a cold spell late in the second half allowed the No. 12/14 Bulldogs of the University of Minnesota Duluth to rally and claim a 76-73 win in the semifinals of the NSIC/Sanford Health Basketball Tournament. After the loss, UIU's record moves to 25-5, while UMD improves to 25-4 and advances to the championship game on Tuesday.
 
Joe Smoldt led the Peacocks with 19 points, nine rebounds and five assists, while Lucas Duax added 14 points, four rebounds and three assists. Jake Hilmer scored 12 and dished out six assists in the game.
 
Drew Blair led the Bulldogs with 29 points, while Josh Brown added 16 and five rebounds.
 
The Bulldogs only converted 3-19 from beyond the arc, but claimed a 48-28 advantage in points in the paint thanks in part to 11 offensive rebounds.
 
The Peacocks claimed a 36-33 lead at the halftime break thanks to 11 points from Joe Smoldt, nine from Dylan Jones, and a combined 14 points from the Duax brothers with Lucas and Connor scoring six apiece and Max adding two. Upper Iowa shot 53.8% from the floor, but turned the ball over nine times in the half.
 
UMD held Jareese Williams and Jake Hilmer off the scoreboard in the opening twenty minutes. The Bulldogs were led by Drew Blair, who scored 15 points on 7-11 shooting.
 
Upper Iowa stormed out to a fast 10-2 lead fueled by a pair of three-pointers and two free throws from Smoldt. With the second three-pointer, Smoldt became the second player in Upper Iowa history to score over 2,000 points in his career joining Jim Bushkofsky. The Bulldogs settled in by the first media timeout as UIU took a 14-9 lead to the bench. Jones had a great start with six points at the rim in the early going. The margin stayed between two and seven points for most of the final ten minutes of the half. UMD was able to cut the gap to its smallest margin of two, 28-26, but each time the Bulldogs got close, UIU was able to push the advantage back out.
 
UMD scored the first eight points of the half to take their first lead of the game 41-36, but Upper Iowa was able to respond with an 8-2 run and retook a 44-43 lead heading to the first media timeout. A three-pointer from Williams, his first points of the game, and two triples from Hilmer erased a five-point deficit and gave UIU a 55-51 lead midway through the second half. After a second three-pointer from Williams, Drew Blair kept the Bulldogs tight with his game-high 25th point of the night on a driving lay in. The make sparked a 6-0 UMD run that put the Bulldogs ahead 64-63 heading into the under-five minute media timeout. The run continued after the timeout as UMD led 70-65 with just over a minute to play.
 
During the 12-2 run, Upper Iowa was 1-8 from the field and 0-3 from three over a six-minute span. A pair of free throws from Hilmer cut the gap to three with just over a minute to play. On UMD's next possession, the Peacocks forced a loose ball and a long three-point attempt, but Josh Brown hit all net on the heave that beat the shot clock and put the Bulldogs up six, 73-67, with 36 seconds to play, but UIU answered with a three from Smoldt to pull back within three, 73-70, with 26.1 on the clock. UMD made three free throws in the final half-minute to secure the 76-70 lead and held on for the 76-73 win after a final three from Smoldt swished in. Down the stretch, Brown led the Bulldogs with nine points in the final eight minutes.
 
Upper Iowa will now wait to hear if they will be one of the five at-large teams to earn a berth to the NCAA Division II Central Regional on March 12-15. UIU was ranked second in the region a week ago.