Cold shooting dooms Panthers against Spiders

CEDAR FALLS — Life on the hardwood gets tough for Northern Iowa when it’s not making 3-pointers.

Sunday afternoon’s 3 of 22 mark from distance proved as much, as Richmond used a strong second half to pull away for a 60-52 win.

“We had some really good looks at the basket in both halves, so nothing different in terms of our approach, this team is built that way with a number of guys that can really shoot it,” UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said. “It’s one thing if the shots aren’t a part of what we’re doing offensively or if the shots are heavily contested, but that wasn’t the case today. We had what we were looking for.”

A low-scoring first half featured multiple lead changes and some of the Panthers best defense of the season, holding the Spiders scoreless for a stretch of more than five minutes. That stretch was quickly forgotten, though, as Richmond scored five points in the last 28 seconds for a 28-27 halftime lead.

Richmond (5-4) loosened up UNI’s defense in the second half. Tyler Burton — who led all scorers with 26 points — led the charge in a 13-3 run that pushed the lead to 11 with just over nine minutes to play.

Bowen Born’s floater with 6:47 remaining got UNI (2-5) within eight at 52-44, but the Spiders defense kept the Panthers from finding their shooting stroke as they went 0 of 9 from distance in the game’s final 20 minutes.

“The four games coming into (today) we’ve shot a really good percentage from 3 and we’ve made a lot of them,” Jacobson said. “We’re coming off a good stretch in terms of what our guys have done shooting the basketball, so I don’t have any concerns going forward.”

Noah Carter led the Panthers with 13 points.

No other Panthers reached double figures, including AJ Green, who finished with six points on 2-of-12 shooting.

Sunday’s loss drops UNI to 0-3 at home this season against Division-I opponents, but Carter said postgame that the team remains confident.

“For myself, a little bit of frustration,” Carter said. “We obviously know we’re a really good team and we have everything that we need, but just gotta keep on working. We’re going to get over the hump. One of these nights our shots are going to fall and we’ll break records.”

Cole Henry made his first career start Sunday as the Panthers played without center Austin Phyfe. In UNI’s previous game Wednesday against Bradley the senior played only 11 minutes and postgame Jacobson described how he’s suffering from long-haul COVID-19 from an infection this summer.

“(He’s) been termed by our doctors with the long-haul COVID that I think most people are familiar with,” Jacobson said. “Just haven’t been able to get to the other side of it. We’re working to see if we can make some progress here, get him into some practices and get him ready for our next game, but I don’t have any thoughts as to if that will happen or if we’ve got to continue to hold him out. We won’t do anything that in any way will push the envelope a little bit.”

UNI plays next on Tuesday, Dec. 14 at home against Jackson State (2-6). Tipoff is at 7 p.m. (ESPN3).