Morrison sparkles for UNI

AMES - Every day in the preseason, former Solon star and Northern Iowa guard Matt Morrison trudged to the gym for a workout, eventually firing up 500 shots.

“That's what he does,” said teammate Marc Sonnen, who joined him for the morning ritual.

Wednesday night at Iowa State, Morrison's toil before daybreak translated into a career effort and an intrastate rivalry win.

He scored 14 points and drained four of five 3-point attempts to key the Panthers' 69-62 triumph over the Cyclones before a crowd of 13,509 at Hilton Coliseum.

“My number just got called to go in,” said Morrison, who hadn't played in three of UNI's first six games of the season. “LIke everybody else on the bench, if there's an open shot, coach (Ben Jacobson) doesn't really frown upon anyone taking a wide open shot. I guess I was fortunate enough to be in that position to take the shot and I guess once the first one went down it just kind of felt good after that.”

ISU (5-2) felt similarly buoyant early, racing to a 14-4 lead stoked by eight points from guard Chris Babb and punctuated by a slam dunk from forward Royce White.

But the Panthers responded with 10-0 run replete with Morrison highlights.

His first 3-pointer made the score 14-7.

Then he sprung a steal that turned into 3-pointer No. 2.

Suddenly, UNI (6-1) was down just four and eventually got hot, building a seven-point first half lead on Morrison's lap with 40 seconds left before the break.

“When you get up 10 on that team - that's a pretty big margin against them,” said Cyclones coach Fred Hoiberg, whose team fell to the Panthers for the fifth time in the past six seasons, including three straight at Hilton. “Then we started making a few mistakes and let them right back in. That's when you've got to expand it. That's when you've got to take that lead from 10 and push it up to 20.”

Instead, ISU was forced to play catch up, which it did.

The Cyclones used an 8-0 run capped by Percy Gibson's putback to take a 45-44 lead with 8:58 left.

Energy returned - to the team and the crowd.

But it had never left the Panthers, who plowed through about four minutes of back-and-forth scores and stops before taking the lead for good at 55-54 on Marc Sonnen's 3-pointer with 4:07 left.

Sonnen, who finished with 12 points, also came off the bench for UNI, which outscored ISU from that area, 34-15.

Anthony James led the Panthers with 17 points.

UNI hit 23 of its last 39 field goal attempts (59 percent) after a 1-11 start and earned its fifth straight win.

“This is a great win for us,” said Jacobson, whose team held the Cyclones' vaunted 3-point shooters to 4 of 18 from beyond the arc (22 percent). “A hard, hard place to play and a very good team.”

ISU's players said poor defense, not sporadic shooting, led to the loss.

“We had a letdown in that area,” said White, who along with Chris Allen scored 15 points to pace the Cyclones. “It wasn't anything complex they were doing that we hadn't seen. It was just communication. And effort.”

ISU left the game with some head-scratchers.

For one, Babb didn't score after his hot start. He attempted another three shots and missed them all.

“They make you work for everything you get,” Hoiberg said.

That's what Morrison and Sonnen do - beginning with the 500 shots.

“We trust each other a lot,” Sonnen said. “I think that's a big thing on our team.”

NORTHERN IOWA (69)

Mitchell 0-4 0-0 0, Tuttle 4-4 1-2 9, Moran 1-5 2-2 5, Koch 1-4 2-3 4, James 6-11 4-6 17, Rank 0-3 0-0 0, Singleton 0-0 0-0 0, Morrison 5-6 0-0 14, Sonnen 4-9 1-2 12, Pehl 3-4 2-3 8. Totals 24-50 12-18 69.

IOWA STATE  (62)

Babb 3-6 0-0 8, Ejim 0-1 0-0 0, Allen 4-13 6-6 15, Christopherson 4-7 0-0 9, White 5-13 5-8 15, Palo 2-2 1-2 5, Booker 2-4 0-1 4, Gibson 2-2 0-0 4, McGee 0-4 2-2 2. Totals 22-52 14-19 62.

Halftime - N. Iowa 33-28. 3-Point Goals - N. Iowa 9-24 (Morrison 4-5, Sonnen 3-7, James 1-1, Moran 1-3, Rank 0-2, Koch 0-3, Mitchell 0-3), Iowa St. 4-18 (Babb 2-4, Christopherson 1-2, Allen 1-6, Booker 0-1, Ejim 0-1, McGee 0-4). Fouled Out - None. Rebounds - N. Iowa 33 (Tuttle 12), Iowa St. 29 (Babb, White 8). Assists - N. Iowa 11 (Koch 4), Iowa St. 10 (White 5). Total Fouls - N. Iowa 20, Iowa St. 17. A - 13,509.

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