UNI offense keeps rolling against North Texas

CEDAR FALLS — The Northern Iowa men's basketball team did something Monday night it hadn't done since before most of the players on the current team were even born.

The Panthers beat the Mean Green of North Texas, 93-70, for their fifth straight win and second of which in a row they scored 90 or more points. Back-to-back games with 90-plus hadn't been done since the 1993-94 season, when Eldon Miller was still in charge. It was the offense that kept UNI in the game during a first half in which North Texas shot 69.2 percent.

No matter how smooth the offense seems to run, though, defense still drives the bus for Coach Ben Jacobson and his players. In their eyes, offense is just what comes with good defense.

'I still think (it's) the defense. I really do,' Jacobson said. 'I think the guys are still driving to and understanding the importance of being a defensive team and rebounding team. What I like is they play offense as a group. Wes has done a terrific job of finding teammates and making plays. Guys are really unselfish. Offensively I just think we have a lot of skill guys on the floor, a great point guard and guys that are unselfish.'

Jacobson said the way his team defended North Texas in the first half led to his team being a step behind when the Mean Green (2-4) went into their actions and set plays. Big minutes from Bennett Koch, who had a career-high 18 points and Aarias Austin, who had 10, were what Jacobson said kept their hot-shooting opponents from getting a bigger lead.

Halftime, then, was all about — you guessed it — cleaning things up on the defensive end. UNI forced North Texas into eight turnovers, but allowed 20 points in the paint and 11 off turnovers. The Mean Green ended up with 0.986 points per possession, a number much higher than the Panthers (5-1) are used to giving up.

'We're definitely still focused on our defense. That's going to be priority No. 1,' said Wes Washpun, who finished with 12 points and seven assists. 'We didn't do a good job tonight, but we have in some other games. We did a good job against North Carolina, we did a good job against North Dakota up there; we're just going to have to hang our hat on our defense as we always do.

'We've got a long way to go to get it close to the level we were at last year. We've shown the points are going to be there; that we're going to score in bunches, we've just got to be able to get stops on top of it.'

Koch's night was one Jacobson praised heavily in his comments during the postgame news conference, and the sophomore agreed that he's getting more and more comfortable on both ends of the floor the more minutes he sees.

He had to deal with two forwards in 6-foot-8 Khalil Fuller and 7-foot Rickey Brice, who weigh in at 266 and 278 pounds, respectively, and said he felt like he handled that size well. His coach has been hammering home the message of confidence, and he's taken it to heart.

'Coach has really stressed trying to play with more confidence in these last couple weeks, and if Coach says to work on something, you work on something. It's been paying off for me,' Koch said. 'I'm very confident in my right-hand hook, so I try and spin back to my left shoulder right-hand hook or try to get people off their feet with shot fakes. Working hard is probably what helped the most.'

As UNI finds its footing on defense and works toward the level it reached last season, it's comforting to Jacobson and the players to know the experience and talent on offense will buoy them until it gets there. With Washpun, Paul Jesperson (eight points), Matt Bohannon (16 points), Jeremy Morgan (15 points) and now Austin (10 points) and Klint Carlson (12 points) on the perimeter, leadership and talent are in no short supply.

'From my side of it, it just felt like it was going to go this route,' Jacobson said. 'There was just going to be a lot more opportunities for guys we felt like are good players. Wes, Bo, Jeremy and Paul are guys who can average double figures in our league and nationally. I felt like that was going to happen.

'I think we can see they're all better than they were a year ago. I think we're seeing their minutes have increased and now they have different roles. The fact that they are good players is out there for more people to see.'

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