UNI gets big men’s basketball win at Southern Illinois

Editor’s note: This story was written in Cedar Falls

Northern Iowa’s offense outdueled Southern Illinois’ Missouri Valley Conference-leading defense at Banterra Center Sunday afternoon for an 82-70 men’s basketball win.

UNI (18-13, 12-8) built its largest lead of 13 for a fourth time with a Nate Heise fast break layup with 10:44 remaining. But the Salukis (19-12, 11-9) offered their first of two comeback bids in response, drawing within two possessions at 62-57 with just over eight minutes remaining after a pair of 3-pointers from Jarrett Hensley and AJ Ferguson and two free throws from Xavier Johnson.

The Panthers then counter punched with a quick 6-0 run to extend their lead to 11, but saw it trimmed back to six after a driving layup from Kennard Davis Jr. and a 3 from Troy D’Amico.

UNI’s newest perimeter threat then stepped up for the second time in the past three games, pushing the lead back into double digits — where it stayed — as back-to-back Jacob Hutson 3s built the lead to 74-62 with 3:55 left to play.

“The start of the second half (was good) and then when we had that nice lead — 12, 13-point lead and they cut it to five with two 3s and a quick basket — those two (moments) in the game (were) just really impressive by the guys,” UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said on the Panther Sports Network postgame show.

A driving layup from Heise and combined six made free throws from Bowen Born, Tytan Anderson and Heise over the game’s final 1:28 ultimately sealed a much-needed win.

Along with impressively outdueling the MVC’s top-ranked defense on its home court, Heise and Trey Campbell factored largely into an inefficient afternoon for MVC leading scorer Xavier Johnson. Johnson shot just 35-percent from the field as he had to grind his way to a game-high 24 points.

“For Trey and Nate in particular — they were (guarding) Johnson the most (today) — to be able to go back and forth a little bit (was important),” Jacobson said. “In the second half Nate (guarded) him for five, six minutes. Then, Trey had that four, five minute stretch. Then we were able to come back (again) with Nate.

“Just felt like that was important and that was key.”

Needing Sunday’s win for a chance at the MVC tournament’s four seed and a first-round bye, UNI’s offense provided a much-needed and well-timed performance, shooting an efficient 61-percent in the second half and 49-percent for the game.

Tied at 34 at halftime, the Panthers continued to find productivity with their newfound ethos over the, now, past six games — playing hard and fast — en route to 18 fast break points and 17 points off turnovers.

“The guys have done such a great job of playing faster,” Jacobson said. “The difference is we’re playing harder and we’re more physical defensively. I would tell you the third part to that is how fast we’re playing. How fast the ball gets on top of other teams. To get 18 (fast break points) in this building, that’s a job well done.”

Four Panthers finished in double figures. Born scored a team-high 19 points. Hutson finished with 15 points, making three of five 3-point attempts, and Anderson and Campbell scored 15 and 11, respectively.

“There’s no question we’re playing — over the last two-and-a-half, three weeks — the best we’ve played all year,” Jacobson said. “We’re playing our best basketball right now.”

UNI returns to action next week at the MVC tournament inside the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

With a three-way tie for fourth-place entering Sunday’s full slate of conference games, the Panthers need either a Belmont (18-12, 11-8) loss at home to Evansville or to come out ahead in a NET Rankings tie-breaker once they’re updated early Monday morning.

Entering Sunday UNI was 116th in the NET Rankings, while Belmont was 121st.

“I’ll be up early. I’ll be up real early refreshing (NET Rankings) to see where the number lands,” Jacobson said. “The efficiency is important. That will help as well. The guys did today — and over the last two and a half weeks — what they needed to do.

“I love what the guys did today.”