The Peacock men's basketball team scored their tenth win of the season and moved back within a game of first place in the NSIC South with a 72-57 victory at St. Cloud State University on Saturday. The win marked a reversal of Friday's second-half fortunes as UIU's offense caught fire and their defense turned up the pressure on the host Huskies. With the win, Upper Iowa is now 10-8 overall and 7-5 in NSIC action, while SCSU falls to 7-10 overall and 4-8 in the conference.
 
After only knocking down nine shots in the second half of Friday's game at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the Peacocks' shooting woes continued into the first half of Saturday's game in St. Cloud. UIU converted nine shots again, but stayed aggressive and were rewarded with 13 trips to the charity stripe where they knocked all but one attempt down. In the second half, the offense caught fire and converted 15 of their 28 attempts (53.6%) including 5-8 (62.5%) from deep and added another five points at the free throw line.
 
Lucas Duax led the Peacocks on both ends of the floor on Saturday posting a stat line that included 20 points, seven rebounds and six steals. Jake Hilmer added 17 points with four rebounds, while Nick Reid chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds and Dylan Jones tallied eight points and nine rebounds.
 
Matthew Willert and Jalen Griffin paced the Huskies with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Willert added nine rebounds as well, while Ryan Bagley pulled down seven rebounds and handed out 10 assists while scoring four points.
 
Upper Iowa went into the locker room at halftime with a three-point advantage, 32-29, and a three-pointer by Jake Hilmer opened the second-half scoring and gave UIU a 35-29 lead.
 
Over the next three minutes, the Huskies launched a 12-0 run to reverse the six-point hole into a six-point advantage, 41-35, fueled by scores from six different players. With just under 14 minutes to play in the game, Luke Taylor made a pair of free throws to give the home team a 45-40 lead, but Upper Iowa flipped a switch and dominated the final 13 and a half minutes outscoring their hosts 32-12.
 
During the dominant run, the Peacock defense forced six Husky turnovers and pressured the home team into 4-15 shooting from the floor. While the defense was flying high, the offense hit their stride converting 12-22 from the field including 3-6 from behind the three-point line paced by 10 points from Lucas Duax, nine from Reid and seven from Jake Hilmer.
 
Upper Iowa will be on the road again next Friday and Saturday at the University of Mary in Bismarck, N.D. and Minot State University in Minot, N.D. The Peacocks will tip off with the Marauders at 5:30 p.m. on Friday and with the Beavers at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.