UNI closes regular season with low-scoring win at Evansville

The hottest team in the Missouri Valley Conference might just wear purple and gold.

Northern Iowa ended the regular season with a 54-52 win over Evansville on Saturday afternoon at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.

It marked the Panthers' third straight win, and ninth in its last 10 games.

UNI (19-12, 11-7 MVC) next heads to Arch Madness - the MVC Tournament - in St. Louis. The Panthers face Southern Illinois in the 4-5 game at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

On Saturday, Wes Washpun played all 40 minutes and led the team with 14 points.

Klint Carlson had 10 points, Jeremy Morgan nine, Paul jesperson eight and Matt Bohannon seven in a low-scoring game.

Northern Iowa led by nine at half, 25-16, and pushed it up to 12 on a Paul Jesperson 3-pointer early in the second half.

Evansville (23-8, 12-6) whittled it down to two points with 4:44 to play on a 3-pointer by DJ Balentine.

The Purple Aces cut it to one point, 51-50, on a 3-pointer by Adam Wing with 54 seconds left.

But Washpun hit a pair of free throws with 32 seconds to go. Down two, a pair of 3-point attempts - one by Egidijus Mockevicius and one by Baltentine - in the final seconds did not connect.

Balentine led the Aces with 19 points. Mockevicius had 14 points and 16 rebounds, all defensive.

'I thought our guys prepared well. We knew it would be a grind-it-out game. They got 15 points off turnovers in the first half and that made a difference,” Evansville Coach Marty Simmons told the school's athletics website. 'I thought our guys played hard, but we made a lot of mistakes. We just have to be better, in tune and locked in.”