UNI restarts MVC men’s basketball play with physical loss to Missouri State

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa’s young men’s basketball team got an unkind re-welcome to Missouri Valley Conference play Wednesday night, as Missouri State out-muscled the Panthers for a 79-67 win.

The Bears (6-7, 2-1) began to get their separation after the midway point of the first half with an 11-3 run that included four of UNI’s 15 total turnovers.

Missouri State steadily increased its 40-29 halftime lead, led by career-highs of 24 points and five made 3s from forward Dalen Ridgnal.

Four other Bears joined Ridgnal in double figures, including Kendle Moore, who hit three 3s and scored 11 of his 15 points in the first half.

“This is a good opportunity for us to realize this is how these (Valley) games are going to be,” UNI guard Bowen Born said. “We’re going to have to ultimately put our foot down and figure out ways to win games. There’s always another level you can take it to. Getting punked on your home floor sucks. Definitely one of the more physical games I think that we’ve played so far, and it obviously worked out well for them.”

UNI (5-8, 1-2) coach Ben Jacobson echoed Born’s statements, and had high praise for recent adjustments the Bears have made with their lineups, defensive rotations and offensive scheme after a slow start to their season.

“There were some plays tonight where guys kind of bumped us, bumped us and laid it in. That’s not gonna work,” Jacobson said. “We’re going to have to get a little bit stronger with what we’re doing. We’re going to have to have a little more of an edge to us to compete against these types of teams in league play. That’s where I feel like our mindset is as players and coaches.”

In particular, Jacobson’s compliments pointed toward the Bears’ ability to switch all five positions defensively with their size and athleticism. He also acknowledged that his team did not guard the ball well enough as Missouri State routinely got to the basket. That forced the Panthers defense to collapse to contend with its size, which consequently created high-percentage kick-out passes for open 3s.

“They’ve got three or four guys that have shot the ball really well in the last couple games and there were times where we were backwards,” Jacobson said. “We didn’t guard the guys that are shooting it pretty good, well enough. And we’re guarding a guy toe-to-toe who’s going to drive it. We had it flipped and you could feel that at times during the course of the game.”

Missouri State gained its largest lead of the game at 64-42 with 8:39 remaining. After a timeout by the Bears with just over five minutes to play, UNI came out in a full-court press and was only able to trim its deficit to 13 with 1:43 left in regulation.

Born led UNI with 21 points while Tytan Anderson and Michael Duax added 15 and 10, respectively.

James Betz (illness) returned to the starting lineup Wednesday for the first time in four games after missing the Panthers’ game on Dec. 6 against Toledo and being limited since. The junior forward scored four points, grabbed five rebounds and had two assists in 16 minutes played.

Nate Heise — who had missed the past month with a finger injury — was ruled out for the remainder of the season. A team press release Tuesday indicated he needed surgery after initially allowing the finger to heal in time.

Jacobson confirmed postgame that the sophomore guard will apply for a medical waiver to gain an additional year of eligibility after appearing in only two games this season.

“As he started to rehab it and work to get it straightened and just get the motion back (we) found out a piece that needed to heal, and usually does heal when you take that month off and do what we did the first time, sometimes it doesn’t. And it didn’t,” Jacobson said. “So, we had to go back in and have the surgery and get it fixed.”

UNI travels to Illinois State (6-8, 1-2) next for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Saturday at Redbird Arena (ESPN+).