Iowa beats Northern Iowa 51-39

(AP) - Freshman Melsahn Basabe scored 14 points and Iowa beat Northern Iowa 51-39 Tuesday night to move past .500 for the first time this season.

Jarryd Cole added 10 points and 15 rebounds for the Hawkeyes, who improved to 22-1 against the Panthers in Iowa City and won back-to-back games for the first times this season.

Iowa (5-4) turned a one-point halftime deficit into a 37-28 lead early in the second half. The Hawkeyes held Northern Iowa (4-3) to just two points in a six-minute stretch late in the second half, and Matt Gatens' 3 with 2:53 left gave Iowa a 46-36 lead.

Jake Koch and Kwadzo Ahelegbe each scored 11 points for Northern Iowa, which was held below 50 points for the second time in seven games.

The Panthers shot just 17.9 percent in the second half and finished the game 6 of 30 from 3-point range.

The irony of Tuesday night's game was that Northern Iowa forced Iowa to play its slowdown style - and the Hawkeyes won anyway.

Iowa's offense woke up early in the second half and the Hawkeyes reeled off an 11-3 run to pull ahead 37-28. Koch hit back-to-back 3s to get the Panthers back within 37-34 with just over 11 minutes left, but three straight layups pushed Iowa's lead to 43-34 with 8:48 to play.

It took Northern Iowa six minutes to hit another field goal after Koch's 3s. Basabe followed a long 3 from the Panthers' Johnny Moran with a layup to push Iowa's lead to 48-39 with 1:49 to go.

Northern Iowa dictated a slower pace early in the first half, but the Panthers fell behind 16-6 11 minutes into the game. Northern Iowa shook off its early struggles with a quick 11-0 run, though, and jumped ahead 17-16.

Ahelegbe spearheaded the Panthers first-half comeback with 11 points in the final 8:13, and Northern Iowa took a 23-22 lead into halftime.

The Hawkeyes prefer to play a more up-and-down style than the plodding Panthers, but they didn't score any fast-break points in the first 20 minutes. Iowa finished with only one bucket on the break, but the defense carried the Hawkeyes to arguably their biggest win of the young season.

Northern Iowa struggled in the early going this season, losing at Syracuse and at Wisconsin-Milwaukee to fall to 1-2. But the Panthers started to play like the team that won a school-record 30 games a year ago when they took on Iowa State last week. They forced the Cyclones to play their tempo as well, beat them on the boards and walked away with a 60-54 win.

Ahelegbe led them past TCU on Saturday, busting out of a season-long shooting slump with 25 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor in a 64-60 road win.

But Ahelegbe went scoreless in the second half against Iowa - a cold streak that was shared by his teammates.

Northern Iowa is now 1-3 on the road this season.

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