Northern Iowa flattened by New Mexico

Northern Iowa couldn't overcome a few bad minutes at the end of the first half and some poor 3-point shooting in a 76-57 loss Saturday to New Mexico at 'The Pit” in Albuquerque, N.M.

UNI (6-3) lost for the third time this season - all on the road.

The game was tied 27-27 with two minutes to play in the first half when Anthony Mathis and Elijah Brown each canned 3-pointers for New Mexico (6-2). Brown added a jumper as time expired to go into halftime on an 8-0 run, and up 35-27.

'The swing at the end of the first half obviously hurt,” UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said on the KXEL postgame show. 'Those stretches matter.”

Paul Jesperson hit a 3-pointer coming out of halftime, followed by a Bennett Koch jumper, but the Panthers never got any closer.

The 3-pointers were not falling for the Panthers, the Missouri Valley Conference leaders in 3-point percentage (42.9). UNI only hit 6-of-25 (24 percent) Saturday night.

'I think they are good shots,” said Wyatt Lohaus, who came off the bench to lead UNI with 12 points, on KXEL. 'We have great shooters, and those were great shots for us. Offensively I thought we got what we wanted, maybe execution was not there at end.”

'Sometimes they were wide open shots,” Jacobson said. 'Those are shots they are going to make a lot.”

Without the 3s, the Panthers could not cut into the Lobos' lead in the second half.

UNI also turned it over 15 times, leading to 18 points for New Mexico, and was out-rebounded 36-25.

The Panthers did limit the Lobos' second-leading scorer, Cullen Neal - son of coach Craig Neal, a former University of Iowa assistant - to two points on 1-of-11 shooting.

'When you do that good of job on their point guard, you want the game decided in the last four minutes,” Jacobson said. 'We need to cut down on a couple of mistakes.”

Near the end of the game, Jeremy Morgan got a technical foul following his own made basket.

Paul Jesperson added 11 points and Wes Washpun had 10 points for Northern Iowa.

Brown had 25 points for the Lobos. Tim Williams added 19 points.

The Panthers will return home for finals week, and face No. 2 Iowa State at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Big 4 Classic at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.