Upper Iowa 82 Wayne State 74

            The Wayne State College men's basketball could not dig themselves out of a 20-point first half deficit as visiting Upper Iowa avenged a 99-71 loss to the Wildcats Friday evening with an 82-74 win over WSC Saturday afternoon at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  WSC falls to 4-4 overall and 4-2 in the NSIC South Division while UIU improves to 3-5 and 1-3 in divisional play.
            The Wildcats never led in the contest as the visiting Peacocks stormed out to a 15-5 lead less than four minutes into the game and built a 20-point advantage at 32-12 with 8:34 to play in the opening half.
            WSC was still trailing 36-16 at the 5:54 mark of the half when the Wildcats made a run.
            A 13-0 run over the following 4:34 cut Upper Iowa's lead to 36-29 following a Nate Mohr 3-pointer.
            But UIU closed the half with the final four points and led 40-29 at intermission.
            Wayne State opened the second half strong and cut Upper Iowa's lead to four at 47-43 on an Alec Millender 3-pointer at the 15:02 mark.
            However Upper Iowa responded and took a pair of 10 point leads again and was in front 60-50 with 12:23 to play.
            WSC was still trailing 62-53 with 10:50 remaining and came back to tie the score at 68-68 on a Justin Eagins 3-pointer with 3:26 left.
            Upper Iowa never let WSC get any closer as the Peacocks scored eight of the next nine points and took a 76-69 lead on a Joe Smoldt 3-pointer with 1:31 to play.
            The Peacocks made a perfect 10 of 10 free throws in the second half that included six of six in the final 43 seconds to defeat Wayne State 82-74.
            Millender and Mohr each scored 13 points for Wayne State followed by Jordan Janssen with 12 and Eagins 11.
            WSC made 29 of 62 shots for 46.8 percent and hit 11 of 26 behind the arc.  The 'Cats were just 5 for 8 at the line.
            Joe Smoldt led Upper Iowa with a game-high 29 points with Lucas Duax adding 23.  Jareese Williams also hit double figures with 11 for UIU.
            The Peacocks were 28 for 64 shooting for 43.8 percent and made 10 of 23 3-point shots (43.5%) while canning all 16 free throw attempts.
            WSC held a 39-32 advantage in rebounding thanks to 10 caroms from Janssen and six each by Jay Saunders and Cody McCullough.
            Janssen had five blocked shots for WSC to go with three assists.
            Wayne State hits the road next weekend for NSIC South Division games at Winona State Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.