BOX SCORE
FAYETTE, Iowa - Upper Iowa's Josh Hughes drilled a 3-pointer with three seconds left to erase a 66-66 tie and lift his Peacocks to a 70-66 victory over Augustana Friday night in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference men's basketball.
UIU improves to 6-10 (3-9 NSIC), while Augustana drops to 10-6 (7-5 NSIC).
Trailing 69-66, the Vikings had a final chance with two seconds left, but
Yuriy Malashenko's attempt at a full-court pass clipped the ceiling in UIU's Dorman Gymnasium. Joey Woods was quickly fouled after the turnover and drained one of his two free throws to close the game.
Hughes finished with a team-high 19 points for the Peacocks, who had beaten the Vikings just once in 10 meetings prior to the contest.
Drae Murray scored a game-high 21 points for Augustana;
Cameron McCaffrey added 13.
Cody Schilling grabbed eight rebounds to along with his seven points.
UIU shot 47 percent from 3-point range, connecting on 9 of 19 from behind the arc.
The Peacocks led by as many as 10 points in the first half, but the Vikings ripped off a 14-2 run to close the half and tied the game at 29 at the break. Murray hit two 3-pointers in the final 42 seconds.
Murray opened the second half with another 3-pointer, and Augustana scratched its way to a 51-42 advantage in the next eight minutes.
The lead, though, disappeared after UIU mounted a 18-2 run in the ensuing seven minutes and led 60-53 with 4:51 to play. Murray accounted for Augustana's only field goal during that span.
Augustana had the difference down to two points with two minutes left and again with 37 seconds to go, but UIU made free throws in response each time.
Murray finally tied the game on a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left to knot the contest at 66 apiece. However, Hughes answered on UIU's next possession with his game-changing 3-pointer.
The Vikings bettered the Peacocks in two major statistical categories. Augustana outshot UIU 44.6 percent to 40.7 percent and outrebounded the Peacocks 35-33.
Free throws proved instrumental for UIU. The Peacocks' 17-of-22 (77.3 percent) performance at the charity stripe was a strong improvement from their season average of 66.7 percent heading into the game.
Schilling's seven points moved him into sixth on the Augustana career scoring list. He passed Arvid Kramer and now has 1,644 career points.
Augustana will play at No. 8 Winona State tomorrow at 7 p.m.
