Panthers’ win streak reaches 4 with home win over Evansville

CEDAR FALLS — The Northern Iowa men's basketball team flipped the script Wednesday night at the McLeod Center. Junior forwards Bennett Koch and Klint Carlson, along with freshman Luke McDonnell, paced the Panthers' offense to a 61-54 defeat of Evansville to extend their winning streak to four games.

The Panthers never trailed Evansville. They opened the game on a 10-3 run and extended their lead to 18 before heading into halftime with a 35-22 advantage.

McDonnell, who wasn't even in Ben Jacobson's rotation three weeks ago, has thrived since being inserted into the lineup. McDonnell was pivotal for the Panthers in the first half, registering a double-double in 13 minutes of action after Bennett Koch sat down with two fouls with 13 minutes left in the half. McDonnell finished the game with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

'Coach (Jacobson's) big emphasis this game was do your job,' McDonnell said. 'And my job is to box out and get rebounds.'

McDonnell's frontcourt running mates also did their jobs against Evansville. Koch and Carlson both reached double-figures, scoring 17 and 11, respectively. The trio of McDonnell, Koch and Carlson grabbed 22 of the Panthers' 34 rebounds and picked up the slack for leading scorer Jeremy Morgan, who finished with eight points on 2-for-9 shooting.

UNI head coach Ben Jacobson was pleased to see his frontcourt trio pick up their teammate Morgan, and he expects they'll be able to do so whenever necessary the rest of the season.

'(Jeremy) doesn't have to think about all the time, 'OK, what happens if we get behind by six and there's seven minutes left,' ' Jacobson said. 'So he can continue to focus on what he should be focused on.'

However, Evansville did not go away quietly. A quick 7-2 run to begin the second half brought the Purple Aces within six, but less than four minutes later, McDonnell's tip-in put the Panthers back up by 10.

The Panthers went without a field goal for the last 7:02 of the game, but were able to put the Aces away for good with free throws down the stretch from Spencer Haldeman, Carlson, Koch and Morgan.

'The way we defended against Loyola, and the way we defended tonight with our man-to-man, both of those games we put the pressure on their offense to have to make a good play,' Jacobson said. 'Early in conference (play), they were getting layups. They were driving it past us, they were getting open 3s, there was no pressure on their offense to have to make anything other than a simple play. Now what we've done here in the two (games) against Loyola and Evansville is force them to take tougher shots. That's a real credit to our guys, they've made a big change in the last two weeks.'

UNI travels to Des Moines on Saturday to take on Drake. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.