Northern Iowa men’s basketball shoots its way past visiting Alcorn State

CEDAR FALLS — Northern Iowa shot its way past Alcorn State on Sunday at McLeod Center, 100-82.

UNI (5-7, 0-2) didn’t get its first separation against the Braves, though, until midway through the first half when freshman Kyle Pock provided seven points during a 9-2 scoring run for a 28-19 lead.

A second batch of first-half separation came when Tytan Anderson, Bowen Born, Michael Duax, Trey Campbell and Nate Heise combined to make seven of the Panthers’ last eight three-point attempts of the half.

“I just hope to take from this (game) is the confidence from guys like Kyle (Pock), like Landon (Wolf), like Michael (Duax),” UNI guard Nate Heise said. “Mike had a really good game, I thought. Kyle had a lot of great opportunities and I thought he played well, as well. The takeaways from this (game) really are great offense, bad defense, if you want to sum it up like that.”

Before Heise capped UNI’s impressive shooting streak with his fourth trey of the half with five seconds on the clock, Duax dropped in a layup on a baseline cut a possession after a fast-break layup from Anderson ended as a three-point play.

A 14-4 run headed into the locker room quickly became a 20-4 run in the second half, extending UNI’s lead to a game-high 29 points at 70-41.

After making 11 of 16 threes in the first half, the Panthers got their first eight points of the second half in the interior from Anderson and Born.

“I felt, offensively, (that) guys are playing with great confidence,” UNI head coach Ben Jacobson said. “Very unselfish. They’re moving the ball. They’re taking the right shots.”

Alcorn State (1-10) mustered a 10-2 run midway through the second half, getting six points from forward Jeremiah Kendall, while forcing two UNI turnovers with its full-court defense to cut its deficit to 20.

UNI finished with a season-high 14 threes in 29 attempts (48 percent) and finished 34-60 (57 percent) from the field.

Despite its rather comfortable win, the Panthers struggled to stop the Braves’ dribble penetration, allowing Alcorn State to shoot 54-percent from the field, something Jacobson said is as simple as being better at guarding the basketball.

“Defensively, just felt like when you’re going (good) on offense, if you can guard the dribble and rebound the ball you got a chance to really (pull) away,” Jacobson said. “Defensively — we’re all watching it — we’re not even close to where we need to be defensively.”

After a career-high 25 in Tuesday’s win against Prairie View A&M, Heise again led all scorers with 24 points — his third career 20-point game — while Anderson, Born and Duax joined him in double figures with 22, 17 and 10 points respectively.

“(Confidence) has moved (up) quite a bit,” Jacobson said. “We’re seeing it mostly at the offensive end of the floor. We’ve played much better since (the Missouri Valley Conference games). We’ve been able to take care of the home court three times in a row. We’ve had hard practices, so they’ve earned the right to have a little more of that swagger offensively and a little more confidence because they’re busting it at practice.”

Kendall led Alcorn State with 23 points, while Jeremiah Gambrell, Roderick Jones and Stephen Byard added 20, 12 and 12 respectively.

UNI returns to action Thursday at Northern Illinois (5-4). Tip-off at NIU Convocation Center is at 7 p.m. (ESPN+).