THIS WEEKEND IN PEACOCK HOOPS… Upper Iowa (16-12, 13-9 NSIC) captured a share of the NSIC South Division Championship for the first time in program history with a pair of wins on the final weekend of the season. The Peacocks are the NSIC South's two-seed in the NSIC Men's Basketball Tournament and will face the NSIC North's three-seed Minnesota Duluth in the quarterfinals on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 4:30 p.m. in Sioux Falls, S.D. at the Sanford Pentagon.
 
LIVE OPTIONS… Live stats and a webcast are available for the game through the links at UIUPeacocks.com/Live or by using the links included with this story. The action will also stream live on the NSIC Network app through Roku and Fire devices, as well as Apple and Android TV.
 
ALL-NSIC ACCOLADES… The Northern Sun Conference announced their postseason men's basketball awards and all-conference teams on Thursday and three Peacocks were honored by the league. Jake Hilmer was named as the NSIC South Division Player of the Year, while Lucas Duax was tabbed as the NSIC Defensive Player of the Year. Hilmer earned a place on the All-NSIC First Team, while Duax and Nick Reid both claimed spots on the All-NSIC Second Team.
 
FOUR FOR FOUR… Jake Hilmer becomes the first Upper Iowa men's basketball player to be named as the NSIC South Division Player of the Year. With the All-NSIC nod, the Walker, Iowa native also becomes a four-time All-NSIC South Division performer after grabbing a spot as an All-NSIC South Division Honorable Mention as a freshman, moving up to Second Team as a sophomore and then collecting his second-straight All-NSIC South Division First Team honor this season. During the 2022-23 season, Hilmer was a two-time D2CIDA National Player of the Week and three-time NSIC Player of the Week. He led the NSIC in scoring with 22.0 points per game and was third in assists/per game dishing out 4.9 per game while playing the most minutes (812) of any NSIC player. The former North Linn High School prep shot 44.2% from the floor, 34.9% from three, and 86.9% from the free throw line, which ranked seventh in the conference, but he converted the second-most shots at the charity stripe (106) among all players. Hilmer topped the 40-point mark twice in NSIC play with 41 in a win over No. 15 Minnesota State University Moorhead and 42 points in an overtime win at the University of Sioux Falls. UIU's point guard handed out a season-high 13 assists at Augustana in a one-point loss to the Vikings; he scored in double figures in 21 of the 22 NSIC games surpassing 20 points in 12 times and 30 points three times including the pair of 40-plus games. Most impressively, Hilmer did all this with the spotlight shining on him after being selected as the 2022-23 NSIC South Division Preseason Player of the Year.
 
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS… Lucas Duax, who has now earned the NSIC Defensive Player of the Year twice after grabbing the award following the 2020-21 season, will go down in the Upper Iowa record books as one of the greatest defenders to wear Peacock blue and white. This season, he was named the NSIC Player of the Week twice and led all NSIC defenders with 52 steals (2.4/game) in 22 NSIC games putting 15 steals between he and the second-best mark this year. Duax pulled down 5.1 rebounds including 3.7 defensive boards a game; his rebounding average was just outside of the top 25 in the conference, while his defensive rebounding average was 25th in the NSIC. The Dubuque, Iowa product broke the UIU career steals record and now has 215 during his four seasons. In addition to his lock down defense, he averaged 16.8 points, the 12^th-best average in the NSIC, and 2.4 assists per game, while shooting 54.2% from the floor to help lead UIU to a share of the NSIC South Division Championship. Duax played the third most minutes of any player in the NSIC this season averaging 34.8 per game.
 
THREE-POINT THREAT… Nick Reid averaged 14.5 points, ranking 20th in the NSIC, and 9.4 rebounds, which tied for the best average in the NSIC with Bemidji State University's John Sutherland. Reid led all NSIC players in total rebounds with 185 and defensive rebounds with 165 for an average of 7.5 per game. The Central City, Iowa product also finished in a tie for eighth place in blocks per ga0me with an average of 0.9 rejections per contest. Reid played the seventh most minutes of any player in the NSIC this season averaging 34.3 per game. Reid notched five double-doubles in NSIC games this season and scored in double figures in all but three of the team's 22 conference matchups. Reid scored a career-high 28 points at Concordia University, St. Paul and also notched 27 points at Minot State University. He grabbed a high-mark of 12 rebounds in the NSIC season twice; once at the University of Minnesota Duluth and once at home against Northern State University. Reid shot 42.6% from the floor against NSIC teams including a 40.6% from behind the three-point line, the top percentage among all NSIC three-point marksmen, and converted 82.9% of his free throws as well, which ranked 11th in the conference.
 
X-FACTORS… Several Peacocks could provide the lift needed to come up with big wins in the postseason. Dylan Jones is averaging 7.3 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 54.1% from the floor and Caleb Delzell is grabbing 5.6 points and 2.5 rebounds with 37 made three-pointers to his name. Both players have scored over 20 points in a game this season, while freshman Austin Hilmer scored 11 points in UIU's five-point loss to Northern State University, the NSIC's overall champion this season. Jackson Foley has also come on strong during the second half of the season playing stout defense and creating opportunities for teammates on the offensive end.

REWIND ON THE FIRST MATCHUP… The Peacocks fell on the road at Minnesota Duluth, 80-62, when the team struggled through a poor-shooting second half in Duluth. After trailing by just two points at halftime, UMD outscored their guests 43-27 in the second half. Jake Hilmer led the Peacocks with 22 points and six assists, while Lucas Duax netted 11 points and brought in six rebounds. Austin Hilmer scored eight points, while Nick Reid scored five points and snared 12 rebounds. Josh Brown led the Bulldogs with 17 points and six rebounds, while Matt Thompson and Joshua Strong came off the bench to score 14 and 13 points, respectively. After just two points, 37-35, separated the teams at halftime, Upper Iowa was only able to convert 31% of their field goal attempts in the second half making nine shots, three of which came from behind the three-point line. Minnesota Duluth took advantage of a huge discrepancy in points in the paint winning the battle under the basket 46-20. In stark contrast to UIU's shooting woes in the final 20 minutes, the Bulldogs knocked down nearly 52% of their shots going 16-31 in the second half with four made threes. UMD outscored UIU 22-7 over the first eight minutes of the second half pushing their slim lead at the break to a 17-point advantage, 59-42, with 12 minutes to play. Upper Iowa made a run to cut the gap to nine points, 63-54, with a 12-4 run of their own, but UIU wouldn't get any closer. The Bulldogs pushed back out to a 74-54 lead when they held the Peacocks scoreless for four and a half minutes.