UNI clamps down in second half to top Iowa

DES MOINES — Saturday night was not the first time Northern Iowa had a dominant defensive display this season.

The Panthers (10-1) held Richmond to 15 points in the first half on Nov. 30, and both North Florida and Northwestern to less than 50 points overall.

Saturday night was, though, the first time Northern Iowa had a dominant defensive display against a team that very well could be playing in the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers frustrated Iowa over the course of the final 20 minutes en route to a 56-44 victory in the Big Four Classic at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines.

'We've seen it (already this year),' said UNI Coach Ben Jacobson. 'There's a couple things we're doing. One, from a scouting report standpoint, we're taking some things away — the first option and second option. So it's a little harder for them.

'Two, the more important part as I've mentioned, the guys care a lot more about (defense) right now. And that covers up for a lot of mistakes that you make.'

UNI matched that low of points allowed in the Richmond game against Iowa, allowing the Hawkeyes 15 points on 3 of 24 shooting in the second half.

The Panthers forced 10 Iowa turnovers just in the second half, and though they were still out-rebounded 38-28 overall, didn't allow Iowa to run in transition and gave up no fast break points.

And while UNI benefitted from an Iowa team that's been outscored 53-13 by its Power 5 conference opponents through the first media timeout, they capitalized on a snowball effect of defensive possessions to put the game out of reach.

'Once you put a couple (stops) together, you can really start to feel it, and I think that happened tonight,' said forward Seth Tuttle, who finished with nine points on 3 of 4 shooting from the field and 3 of 4 from the free throw line. 'We did a great job there to start the second half and basically throughout basically the whole second half of putting one together, one with the next one. We just talked about at halftime that we had to get back and not give them anything easy.'

Nothing about what Iowa tried to do in the second half was easy, that's for certain.

Possessing a distinct size advantage, the Hawkeyes couldn't cash in. Defensive rotations to help individual UNI post defenders turned away multiple easy buckets for Adam Woodbury and Aaron White. Both were victims of big blocks, Woodbury's straight up against Bennett Koch and White's from Wes Washpun, who had rotated over to help.

Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery said it was definitely a goal to exploit the advantage, with Woodbury at 7-foot-1 and White at 6-foot-9, compared to Tuttle at 6-foot-8 and Marvin Singleton at 6-foot-6. It worked for a while, but not long enough.

He said it was effective in the first half, but said they lacked 'the same edge we played with in the first half,' to have the same result. When that advantage goes away, he said, they had to make jump shots to compensate.

The stat line and the dejected look on Iowa shooters' faces said that did not happen.

'To beat UNI, you've got to make jumpers. They're going to take away penetration, they're going to be loaded to the ball, and you're going to have to make jumpers,' McCaffery said. 'If you start making jumpers, you can stretch the defense a little bit. But if you start missing, it's almost like it's a zone. To their credit, they were working hard and contesting and getting back.'

Whatever it was — in the post, guard play in half court or in transition — UNI was in control on defense throughout the second half.

Jacobson said it was a performance they needed as much as wanted, especially given the loss last week to Virginia Commonwealth and the upcoming break before heading into the new year. Rebounding from a loss that could've been a win is a boost mentally.

To rebound this way, against an in-state rival, is a much different thing.

'Our guys found another level of defense in the second half,' Jacobson said. 'Our defense is better because we've worked on it more than we did a year ago, but the reason why it's much better is because our guys care more about defense than they did a year ago. That's the reason.'

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