UNI beats Loyola in double-OT, 72-69

CEDAR FALLS — With 1.4 seconds left in double overtime Wednesday night, ESPN tweeted out that Northern Iowa's men's basketball team had beaten Loyola, 72-69.

The Worldwide Leader in Sports is never wrong, of course. UNI did end up winning by that exact score.

Though it didn't come without a final moment of uncertainty. You've just got to have that this season.

The Panthers threw an inbounds pass underneath their bucket out of bounds, giving Loyola one last crack at a tie. After a Ramblers timeout, leading scorer Milton Doyle was able to get off about a 30-foot desperation shot.

It banked off the glass, hit the front rim and went out. Whew.

'That one looked good,' said UNI's Jeremy Morgan with a smile. 'I was a little nervous about that one. But we were able to pull it out.'

Seems like nothing has been easy for Northern Iowa (7-11, 2-5 in Missouri Valley Conference play), yet here the Panthers are with a modest two-game win streak and a winnable game Saturday at Southern Illinois upcoming. Things are getting better.

This one was proof. Loyola (13-7, 3-4) whipped up on UNI in Chicago two weeks ago, 77-66, in a game that really wasn't that close.

'We were just talking about that,' said Morgan, who finished with 17 points. 'That's a big turnaround from two weeks ago, or however long ago it was when we played them. We're playing at a much higher level than we were two weeks ago. I think that showed tonight.'

'We've made some big strides the last 10 days, two weeks,' concurred UNI Coach Ben Jacobson. 'In addition to our offense getting better, defensively is where we needed to make a lot of changes and do some of the basic things better. We've started to do that, and I think we did a lot of that tonight.'

Loyola led by eight late in the first half, but a Morgan 3-pointer at the buzzer made it a 28-24 game at the break. The teams slugged it out in the second half and down the stretch in regulation, a pair of Morgan free throws with 8.6 seconds left tying it at 53-53.

It was the exact same in overtime, with a Jordan Ashton free throw with 1:10 left tying things at 58-58. On to the second overtime they went.

Center Bennett Koch capped a terrific game with a tiebreaking free throw, then a conventional three-point play with 1:24 left, converting a terrific Morgan feed inside. Foul trouble kept Koch to three minutes of playing time in the first half, but, boy, was he great from there on.

His final line was 21 points (15-of-17 free-throw shooting) and nine rebounds.

'The first half, I was really frustrated,' he said. 'I went in at halftime being down on myself. But some teammates said being down on myself was being selfish. I had to stay locked in, come back and have a strong second half.'

UNI continuously pounded the ball inside to Koch, Klint Carlson and Luke McDonnell (who had a career-high 13 points), and that was pivotal. The Panthers went 24 of 30 from the free-throw line to Loyola's 6 for 8.

There's your difference.

'When Bennett can make plays down low, that opens the floor up for everybody else,' Morgan said. 'His effort on the boards tonight, we needed that. He stepped up for us ... It was a very physical game for him down there, and I thought he did a great job of staying composed and enabling himself to get to the free-throw line.'

UNI put the defensive clamps on Doyle, who was held to 12 points on 3-of-17 shooting. He also had a whopping nine turnovers.

The senior guard came in averaging 18.9 points a game. Donte Ingram led the Ramblers with 19 poins and nine boards.

'They really had their way at their place two weeks ago,' Jacobson said. 'They drove it downhill, they got layups, they got open 3s. Tonight they got some open 3s, but that's a result of them having a good team ... What we did different tonight than two weeks ago was we competed enough defensively to keep the ball up the floor. Doyle didn't spend all night in the lane, and he really hurt us at their place.'

'We just have to keep building and growing,' Morgan said. 'These young guys have come a long way, they've made a lot of progress so far. We've just got to make sure we keep going forward. Be happy with these two wins, but we want to keep moving forward and keep getting better.'

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