That's 14 in a row for UNI after tightest win of the bunch

CEDAR FALLS -- Northern Iowa brought its ESPN2 game to ESPN2 last Saturday, and its ESPNU game to ESPNU Tuesday night.

After looking so good in its 61-49 win at Illinois State last Saturday on the Deuce, the Panthers slogged to a 52-50 men's basketball victory over Bradley at the McLeod Center on Tuesday night, and before an ESPNU audience.

The game made the preceding Virginia Commonwealth 81-68 win over Hofstra look like it belonged on ESPN Classic.

But the season is long. Some wins are authoritative. Every now and then, one can be a slog if you're good enough to fight through the quicksand. These Panthers are good enough.

"This was going to be one of those nights when one of the two teams was going to be fortunate enough to win the game," UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said.

Thanks in no small part to keeping their second-half fouling under control, the Panthers were the fortunate ones here.

But make no mistake about it. This is a very good team. You don't tie a 46-year-old school-record for consecutive wins (14) by being a grinder. You don't start 6-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference -- as that league's defending champion -- without plenty of polish and grit.

Bradley had the ball and that 52-50 deficit with 20 seconds left, but the Panthers had just three team fouls in the second half and knew it. So senior guard Ali Farokhmanesh, who had a game-high 14 points, committed a foul with 14.4 seconds left without penalty. Then he committed another three seconds later.

UNI still had a foul to give, but wasn't planning on using it. Farokhmanesh wisely did with six-tenths of the final second left, before Braves guard Sam Maniscalco could get a shot off.

(Johnny Moran -- No. 13 - reacts to victory)

Bradley's play off the in-bounds pass was a lob that Lucas O'Rear knocked away, and UNI had won yet again.

The Braves had 20 turnovers, UNI 19.

"It was a little bit of a strange game," Jacobson said. "I think the guys on both teams competed rreal hard. It felt like the game was kind of stuck in the mud a little bit.

"It was kind of an ugly basketball game, but not from a lack of effort or competition on both sides."

Part of the less-than-finesse probably had to do with the schedule. This was both teams' sixth league game since Dec. 29.

The Panthers will take Wednesday off, then get in two full days of practice for their Saturday night game against Indiana State. I'd expect them to be a lot sharper in collecting the record-breaking 15th-straight triumph.

In the meantime, consider these nuggets:

UNI is ranked No. 1 in Collegeinsider.com's Mid-Major Top 25.

The Panthers haven't lost since Nov. 20, to DePaul. That was in the Virgin Islands. They haven't lost in the U.S. since falling to Purdue in the NCAA tournament in Portland, Ore., last March.

They've won their last 17 games in the Central time zone, the last loss coming at home against Drake last Feb. 18.

Only Kentucky (17 games) and Texas (15) have longer winning streaks in Division I than Northern Iowa. Texas is at Iowa State Wednesday night.

UNI was 16th in the RPI as of Sunday according to collegerpi.com.

I'll have a column on the Panthers in Friday's Gazette. That means it will probably show up on the Hlog Thursday. And now ... Interstate 380 awaits!