UNI uses 'gutty effort' to upset No. 24 Wichita State

After wins against North Carolina and Iowa State, Northern Iowa men's basketball coach Ben Jacobson talked about following up last season's magical run and doing something as or more special this season.

For the better part of January, though, things felt as far from that as possible.

What the Panthers became through those six losses in seven games, though, might not have happened without such a rough stretch. Instead of talking just about something special, Jacobson also got to talk about toughness and grit after UNI went to Koch Arena and upset No. 24 Wichita State, 53-50, to snap a 43-game home winning streak for the Shockers.

'That's quite a gutty effort there. You talk about guts, effort and courage, and all those things when it comes to competing,' Jacobson said to KXEL Radio after the game. '(In a) competitive environment and our guys having to ratchet it up to meet the level of intensity, toughness and physical play — I don't know how far back I'd have to go to find it. Not just with this team, I'm talking all our teams.

'The team this year has had to fight to get it. Today was the highest level it's been.'

The Panthers (16-11, 8-6 Missouri Valley Conference) won their sixth straight game, and got their third win against a ranked opponent this season — matching the number of wins against ranked opponents in the last four years combined.

The first win by a visitor in Koch Arena in more than 1,000 days — and first there for UNI since 2006, Jacobson's first year — came by way of stifling defense from both teams, but more so in the second half from UNI.

Jacobson's team — which is now giving up just 60.3 points per game in MVC play — held the Shockers (18-7, 12-2) to just six points in the last 11:32 of the game, including a stretch of 7:42 in which Wichita State didn't score at all. The Panthers had success in a 2-3 zone in the first half, en route to a 38-27 halftime lead, but the Shockers ate it up to start the second stanza. Wichita State's 17-2 run tied it at 44-44, before UNI's defense cranked up the pressure and shut down the Shockers, who finished 20 of 66 (30.3 percent) overall and 7 of 31 (22.6 percent) from 3-point range.

'(We were) left with playing man-to-man against a team that had it rolling on their home floor and has experience. That's a tough thing to do,' Jacobson said to KXEL. 'It was a matter of just fighting them, really, is the bottom line. I thought we defended the ball screen here 10 times better than we did at our place. Most of that was to do with scheme. At our place, we had our (forwards) running all over the place, and that wasn't good.

'Defending that ball screen was huge, then just fighting on the boards. They smoked us on the boards, but we fought at key times, got our hands in there and got a couple key ones when we had to.'

UNI was led by a different pair of players than most would have predicted heading into the game. Klint Carlson had a team-high 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting, and Wyatt Lohaus had 11 on 5 of 7 shooting, as both Wes Washpun and Bennett Koch had to sit for long stretches with foul trouble.

They both had key moments in the game. Carlson's biggest stretch came at the end of the first half, in which he hit the 3 that put UNI up 11 at the break, and scored on three straight possessions overall. Lohaus' poise under Wichita State's pressure was something Jacobson talked about after the game, and his four assists each came at crucial moments.

For a kid who won state championships at Iowa City West and an MVC Tournament last spring, his assessment of what this game meant to him is cause for notice.

'That was one of the most fun games I've ever played in — especially a regular season game. Having around 10,000 people yelling at you? It doesn't get much better than that,' Lohaus said to KXEL. 'We have a small group that travels, so we basically viewed it as us against the world. Sometimes you need that to play with that chip on your shoulder.

'No one thinks we're going to come in here and win, and no one thinks a younger player who hasn't played a ton is going to do much. I really viewed it as nothing to lose. It was really to my advantage in that way.'

UNI heads to Loyola on Wednesday for a rematch of what might've been the low point of this season — a 51-41 loss at McLeod Center.

But from that point until now, Jacobson said his team has grown as much or more than almost any he's had.

'You've got to have guys that stick together, and you've got to have guys with some toughness,' Jacobson said. 'We've got that over the course of time.'

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