UNI men’s basketball continues surge, ends 7-game Southern Illinois winning streak

CEDAR FALLS — Clutch plays late sent Northern Iowa past Southern Illinois, 69-57, Saturday afternoon at McLeod Center, snapping the Salukis’ seven-game winning streak.

For the third straight game, the youthful Panthers (8-8, 4-2) put their continued development and maturation on display, surviving a dramatic last nine minutes they likely would not have a month ago.

“How hard we played on both fronts — just love seeing the guys, seeing the team play that hard for that many minutes, that many possessions,” UNI coach Ben Jacobson said. “That’s as close to 40 minutes of playing as hard as you can play on each possession as we’ve had all (season).”

Mired in a five-plus minute scoreless streak, redshirt freshman Landon Wolf dribbled into a contested jump shot with 8:44 remaining. Then, Bowen Born — who scored a game-high 27 points — quickly followed with a driving layup past SIU’s Marcus Domask and a step-back 3 to recharge a briefly languishing offense and re-extend UNI’s lead to 10.

Despite trailing by double digits six separate times, the Salukis (12-5, 4-2) nearly mounted a comeback over the final seven minutes.

Xavier Johnson’s free throws got SIU within one possession at 58-56 with 3:22 remaining, but a defensive switch by UNI to a triangle-and-two shortly thereafter set the stage for the clutch plays on both ends of the floor that got the Panthers their third straight Missouri Valley Conference win.

“We’ve had just a couple possessions that we’ve played (triangle-and-two) this year,” Jacobson said. “Today, what pushed it over the edge was two of our guys with four fouls.”

After the defensive switch, SIU guard Lance Jones — who scored a team-high 17 points — missed a pair of contested layups that led to loose-ball fouls and sent Born to the free throw line, where he finished 9-for-9.

Forward Cole Henry also helped combat the Salukis’ comeback attempt, using his guard skills along with a Born screen to dribble past JD Muila and drop in a reverse, spinning layup that erupted McLeod Center.

“Because of (Henry’s) skill level, it’s a play that we’re really comfortable going to,” Jacobson said. “There just are not that many guys around the country with that skill level. (Assistant coach Set Tuttle) is doing the majority of the play-calling and doing a terrific job.”

Once UNI regained its sixth and final double-digit lead with Born’s seventh made free throw, it had its most complete game on film against the nation’s 17th-ranked scoring defense.

“I’d say today was our most complete game. For 40 minutes we really got after them,” Born said. “We had some stretches early where it’s like, ‘man, we’re playing really, really good basketball.’ (Saturday) we just limited those bad stretches and we guarded them and I think that’s where the game was won with defense.”

Tytan Anderson joined Born in double figures with 10 points and 10 rebounds, his seventh double-double of the season. Henry added nine points and 12 rebounds, five of them on offense.

UNI returns to action on Tuesday when it hosts Murray State (9-6, 4-1) at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).