Northern Iowa closes Virginia trip with win over George Mason

Northern Iowa beat Georege Mason, 73-65, Tuesday night at EagleBank Arena in Fairfax, Va.

The Panthers (6-2) continued their hot shooting from 3-point range, hitting 10-of-26 (38.5 percent) from the arc. Paul Jesperson and Matt Bohannon each had three 3-pointers.

'Me and Bo are very confident shooters,” Jesperson said on KXEL postgame radio. 'We both put a lot of time in. We knocked them down when we got opportunities.”

Northern Iowa used 3-pointers from Jesperson and Bohannon to race out to a 10-2 lead to start the game. In an 8-0 run that followed a few minutes later, Wyatt Lohaus came off the bench to hit a pair of 3-pointers, and UNI went up 27-9.

'Wyatt had his best half,” UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said on KXEL. 'He hasn't had a lot of scoring opportunities. Hopefully that will jump-start him a little bit.”

The Panthers hit just two baskets in the final 5:14 of the first half, but led at intermission, 33-26.

George Mason (4-6) never took the lead, but cut it down to two, 36-34. Bohannon responded with a jumper, then a 3-pointer.

Later in the second half, Patriot guard Otis Linvingston II hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to one, 53-52, but it was trumped by another Bohannon 3-pointer that started a 10-0 UNI run.

'They are playing like seniors,” Jacobson said. 'They are playing like how you want them to play.”

In the final 1:09, UNI made 12-of-14 at the free throw line to salt the game away.

'It comes with repetition,” Jesperson said about making foul shots. 'Getting in the gym and knocking those down.”

Jesperson finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Wes Washpun had 19 points and four assists, and Bohannon added 14 points.

Marquise Moore led George Mason with 15 points and Livingston added 13 points.

The Patriots outrebounded the Panthers 49 to 32, and that included 23 offensive boards.

'We're going to have to figure that out, because we're small,” Jacobson said. 'We're going to have to figure out how to get rebounds.”

UNI countered losing the rebounding battle by only having four turnovers.

'That's probably the game,” Jacobson said. 'We gave up 23 offensive rebounds to let George Mason stay in it, you have to make it up somewhere.”

Tuesday night was the second straight game in Virginia. UNI lost to Richmond, 82-67, on Saturday.

The Panthers next travel to The Pit to face New Mexico (5-2) at 8 p.m. Saturday.