The fisherman in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" went 84 days without catching a fish. By the end of the novella, that streak of infamy was still intact. For the Upper Iowa women's basketball team, their 62 road-game losing streak came to an end as they defeated Sioux Falls 75-67 in overtime. The women's basketball program is seeing their first NSIC road victory since Jan. 7, 2017 when they defeated Southwest Minnesota State in Marshall, Minn.

The victory brings the Peacocks to 6-14 in conference and 10-15 overall. They sit firmly in sixth place in the NSIC South as they are currently two games ahead of the seventh and eighth place team, vying for a spot in the NSIC post-season tournament. The loss drops Sioux Falls to 4-16 in the NSIC and 7-19 overall for the year. 

The overtime battle came after Upper Iowa saw their 11-point lead diminish in the fourth quarter. After leading 52-41 with nine minutes left to play in regulation, the Cougars went on a 14-2 slide over the next five minutes. The Peacocks strung together two sets of free throws from Lydia Haack and Katie Tornstrom in addition to try and offset Sioux Falls' large scoring run. Down two points with 13 seconds left, Upper Iowa called several timeouts in an attempt to run an out of bounds play to give them a bucket. On their third out of bounds attempt, Tornstrom executed a spin move and fade-away jumper off the glass to tie up the game at 60 to send it into overtime.

Upper Iowa relished in their second-chance opportunity at new life as they kicked off the extra session with a 6-0 run, fueled by scoring from Tornstrom and a free throw netted by Helen Staley. Sioux Falls did not hit their first field goal until there was just over a minute left to play in overtime. The Peacocks were up 71-67 with 20 seconds left as the Cougars fouled and sent UIU to the charity stripe in hopes of getting back in the game. Upper Iowa pieced together free throws from Staley and Callista Rochon-Baker to seal the 75-67 victory. 

Overall, the Peacocks shot 38% from the floor on 24-63 shooting. They struggled from their sweet spot, only hitting 4-15 from long distance in tonight's matchup. Sioux Falls shot a similar percentage as they converted 32% from the field and 25% beyond the arc. 

Other notables include Upper Iowa getting to the free throw line 31 times and converting 23 of those attempts. The Peacocks outrebounded the Cougars 53-39.

Tornstrom led Upper Iowa in scoring with 23 points on 8-15 shooting while grabbing nine boards. She was complemented by Haack who recorded a double-double with 18 points and ten rebounds. 

Up next, the Peacocks have two more games left of regular season play before the NSIC tournament held at the Sanford Pentagon on Feb. 22-25. Upper Iowa heads to Concordia-St. Paul on Thursday, Feb. 16 for their last road game. Tip off with the Golden Bears is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The Peacocks come back to Fayette on Saturday, Feb. 18 to wrap up the regular season against Minnesota State University-Mankato at 4 p.m.