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Cold UNI men fall to McNeese State
Panthers hit just 16 of 55 shots in home loss
Cole Bair - correspondent
Dec. 10, 2022 12:23 pm
CEDAR FALLS — Cold shooting and 18 turnovers helped McNeese upset Northern Iowa, 52-49, in a men’s basketball game at the McLeod Center Friday night.
Of its 39 misses from the field (16 of 55), seven straight came in the game’s last minute — thanks in part to three Cowboys turnovers.
Trey Campbell and Drew Daniel combined for six missed 3s in the final minute, and before getting those seven attempts off, UNI’s possession before Johnathan Massie’s two free throws extended McNeese’s lead to three included two offensive rebounds and netted no points.
“Things are a little disjointed no matter who they’re playing against because they do a good job with the zone (defense),” UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said. “We had some pretty good looks at the basket. We shot some 3-point shots with nobody within 10 feet of us.
“So we had enough opportunities, but it was going to be that kind of game.”
A zone defense from the Cowboys that included some box-and-one focused on Bowen Born held the Panthers leading scorer to a season-low seven points on 2-12 shooting. UNI’s second leading scorer, Tytan Anderson, also struggled — finishing 2-8 from the field with only six points.
“We saw a lot of different things tonight,” UNI forward Michael Duax said. “They just played a defense that we haven’t seen before.
“Being young that’s something that Trey, myself (and) Landon (Wolf) — we’ve never played against that before. We want to move on, not dwell on it too hard, but we also need to learn from this and get ready for Monday.”
Along with its shooting struggles, UNI committed 18 tunovers for the second consecutive game and missed seven of its 17 free throws. Jacobson specifically pointed out 11 of the turnovers coming in the first half, and how they prevented any separation amid four lead changes.
“It felt like it really hurt us in the first half,” Jacobson said. “Of the 18, I’m going to guess at least five or six of those were ones that (we) just got a little careless. Instead of just making the easy pass, maybe to a guy next to us, we’re trying to make a long one early in the shot clock when we really don’t need to.”
Campbell and Duax finished with career-highs of 17 and 16 points respectively, and Duax added 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.
UNI returns to action Monday when it hosts South Florida (3-6) at 7 p.m. (ESPN+)