> Box Score

MARSHALL, Minn. – Upper Iowa held off a furious rally attempt by Southwest Minnesota State to earn a 78-74 victory in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball on Saturday night at the R/A Facility.

The big difference in the game proved to be turnovers, as Upper Iowa (6-2, 2-1 NSIC) forced Southwest Minnesota State into 17, which led to 23 points. UIU committed just eight turnovers, leading to 11 SMSU points.

Bo Pagel led the Peacocks with a game-high 19 points, while Jordan Hay came off the bench to score 18 points and grab six rebounds.

SMSU (6-3, 2-1 NSIC) was led by Turner Moen, who poured in a team-high 18 points on 6 of 9 shooting. Mitch Weg came off the bench to score 16 points and grab nine rebounds. Cole Martin recorded a double-double with 10 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, while Joey Bartlett added nine points and 11 rebounds.

UIU, which led for a majority of the game, held a 75-65 lead with 1:32 left in the game, before SMSU scored nine straight points in just over a minute to cut the deficit to 75-74 with 27 seconds remaining.

SMSU fouled UIU's Grant Lang with 22 seconds left, but after Lang made the first free throw, he missed the second, but was able to track down his own rebound and SMSU was forced to foul Pagel with 18 seconds on the clock. Pagel made both free throw attempts to seal the Peacocks' second straight win in Marshall.

SMSU finished the night shooting 40 percent (25 of 63) from the field, including just 5 of 22 from 3-point range. UIU closed the night shooting 40 percent (26 of 65) and made just 7 of 27 3-pointers.

UIU led for the game's first five minutes before SMSU took its first lead at 11-10 with 14 minutes and 21 seconds remaining following a field goal by Martin. Travis Meinders drilled a 3-pointer to push the lead to 14-10—SMSU's largest lead of the half.

UIU used an 8-2 run midway through half to take a 26-20 lead at the 7:22 mark after a 3-pointer by the Peacocks' Jace Hanna.

SMSU used a layup by Weg to cut the lead to 28-24 with 5:07 left, but UIU answered with six straight points to take its largest lead of the half at 34-24, before taking a 39-32 lead into the halftime break.

SMSU committed 11 turnovers in the first half which led to 12 points for UIU.

SMSU cut the UIU lead to 39-37 early into the half, but UIU had an answer for each Mustang run and eventually built a 57-45 advantage with 10:33 left in the game.

Martin hit a pair of free throws to make the score 57-51 with 7:55 remaining, but UIU rallied with five straight points to make the score 62-51.

The Mustangs kept battling back and made the score 67-63 with 3:15 left following a three-point play by Weg, but four straight free throws—two by Pagel and two by Hay—gave UIU an eight-point cushion.

Trailing by 75-65 with less than 90 seconds on the clock, Moen hit a 3-pointer and following two missed shots by UIU, Moen completed a three-point play with 46 seconds remaining to make the score 75-70. Moen then picked up a steal on the in-bounds pass and quickly scored to make it 75-72. Martin then forced a steal near mid-court and found Moen open for a layup with 27 seconds on the clock to cut the UIU lead to 75-74, but that was as close as the Mustangs would come.

Southwest Minnesota State hits the road for the first time in conference play next weekend with a two-game trip to North Dakota. SMSU faces U-Mary next Friday, before taking on Minot State on Saturday.