Panthers rally past Northern Colorado

UNI Sports Information

CEDAR FALLS - The University of Northern Iowa opened its home season with a 78-69 victory over  Northern Colorado on Sunday in the McLeod Center.

The Panthers used a McLeod Center record six steals from Johnny Moran to move to 2-1 on the year. UNI also forced Northern Colorado into an arena record 25 turnovers in the contest.

Northern Colorado's Paul Garnica hit 6-of-9 shots  from the 3-point arc and led all scorers with 22 points. Northern Colorado (0-3) shot 13-of-20 from 3-point range.

UNI trailed by seven in the first half at 22-15 before putting together an 8-0 run, keyed by 3-pointers from Jake Koch and Moran.

UNI used a 16-4 run to open up a 63-54 lead with 6:30 left in the game.

But the Bears failed to give in and trimmed the lead to one at 64-63 after a trio of 3-pointers - the last of which coming with 4:08 left by Emmanuel Addo.

The Panthers' Marc Sonnen buried a triple out of the corner and Koch added a pair of buckets over a 34-second stretch to push the margin back to nine at 72-63 with 1:09 left.

UNI had five players reach double figure scoring.  Moran led the way with 17 points. Koch added 15 points and Deon Mitchell and Sonnen tossed in 12 points apiece. Anthony James also reached double figures with 10 points.

UNI will host Western Carolina on Tuesday in the McLeod Center. Tip is slated for 7 p.m. with the game being broadcast live on the Panther Sports Television Network (KWWL 7.3).