UNI men’s basketball responds after ‘the hardest week of practice we’ve had’ with a 78-73 win over Richmond

CEDAR FALLS — A strong second half sent Northern Iowa past Richmond Wednesday night at McLeod Center, 78-73.

Trailing 41-39 at halftime, a Bowen Born 3-pointer gave the Panthers a lead 36 seconds into the second half that they didn’t relinquish as they went on to outscore the Spiders 39-32 over the final 20 minutes.

Born also hit what became the game-sealing shot, nailing a 10-foot baseline jumper off a Tytan Anderson pass with 46 seconds left to give UNI a 75-69 lead.

“The conversations that were taking place in the timeouts (from) five, six minutes on down — just what the guys were talking about — more importantly how they were talking,” UNI Coach Ben Jacobson said when asked the biggest positive in the win. “Very confident. Talking about finding a stop. Talking about earning a win. That type of conversation. We really haven’t had a lot of that. More of it (has) comes from us as coaches in the timeouts.”

The Panthers defense — which Jacobson didn’t hesitate to critique earlier this week — manufactured what was likely its best stretch of the season in the game’s final 10 minutes, holding Richmond to an 18-percent mark from the field (2-11).

UNI also grabbed nine steals as it provoked 14 Richmond turnovers, seven more than the Spiders’ nation-leading average entering Wednesday night’s game.

“I think it all goes back to the (two days) of practice that we had,” UNI guard Nate Heise said. “Everything that we did tonight came from the mentality throughout practice this week. It was the hardest week of practice we’ve had and deservedly so.”

A career-high 21 points from Trey Campbell gave the Panthers the offensive punch they needed. Campbell tied his career-high mark with six made 3s, making three in each half.

“He’s put in a ton of time,” Jacobson said of Campbell. “You want it to pay off every time you walk out there and play, but that’s not it. What matters is when he walks out there he knows how much time he put in. When he walks out there and catches it, he knows he’s going to make it. His teammates know he’s going to make it. That’s what matters and he’s got that right now.”

A 14-3 first-half scoring run by the Spiders was answered with a 15-6 run from the Panthers. The game’s first 20 minutes also included nine lead changes.

Born and Heise joined Campbell in double figures with 17 and 13 points respectively. Anderson added six points and a game-high 11 rebounds while 11 Panthers played and scored.

“In any situation different guys can come in and they can be ready to play,” Heise said. “Tonight it was Drew (Daniel). Landon (Wolf) had some big first half minutes. You can really name just about anybody and they were ready to go when the time came.”

UNI travels to Toledo (4-4) Saturday for a 1 p.m. tip at John F. Savage Arena.