UNI men’s basketball going through growing pains

CEDAR FALLS — Toledo’s high-powered offense proved to be a bit too much for Northern Iowa Tuesday night as the Rockets scored an 83-75 men’s basketball win at McLeod Center.

Bowen Born — who scored a game-high 27 points — sparked multiple UNI (3-5) scoring runs, including a 10-0 run to begin the second half that gave the Panthers their only lead of the game at 45-44 with 16:06 remaining.

Born hit two of his four 3-pointers during the run, and dished two of his three assists on a pair of Derek Krogman layups, but Toledo (6-3) countered as it did after UNI’s 14-3 run in the first half and quickly reestablished a lead it didn’t relinquish.

“It’s a hard team to play catch-up (against). It’s a hard team to try and outscore,” UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said.

A Trey Campbell jumper with 4:45 to play got the Panthers within five, but was followed by Tytan Anderson fouling RayJ Dennis on a 3 and a possession with three offensive rebounds that netted UNI no points.

The absence of center James Betz (illness) proved to be critical as Toledo center JT Shumate led the Rockets with 24 points. Dennis added 21 points, five rebounds and five assists.

“Dennis really controls the action,” Jacobson said. “Doesn’t get sped up, doesn’t change the way he plays. The second thing is their experience and their ability to execute. They really know what they’re looking for.”

A season-high 18 turnovers became the biggest culprit that stood in the way of UNI’s chances of a comeback.

Born and Jacobson said despite the season-high number of giveaways, it’s a part of their maturation process as a team.

“For us, we feel and just know that it’s part of the process, for us to get as good as we can get,” Jacobson said. “We could take a few less chances with that roll man, but we would not get as good as we can get.

“So right now we’re in that process of working through reads (and) passes that we’re not great at yet.”

Campbell joined Born in double figures with a career-high 15 points and Anderson registered his fourth double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

UNI returns to action Friday when it hosts McNeese State (2-6) at 7 p.m. (ESPN+), the second of three games it will play in seven days.

“Everybody goes through this (injury) stuff at different times,” Jacobson said. “But it does — it slows down your ability to make those moves forward because we had some good momentum coming out of the Evansville game.

“In saying that, the guys are doing terrific and learning and getting better.”