The University of Northern Iowa hosted a back-and-forth contest with Illinois State that eventually turned into a runaway win for the Panthers at 79-64.
“The guys were good,” said head coach Ben Jacobson. “I really liked the way we played both halves. We had both teams missing shots so it was a lower scoring game, but I thought our execution was good. I just thought our passing, our cutting, our movement, the pace was great in the second half.”
The Saturday game initially seemed to be going in the Redbirds favor, however, with Liam McChesney making their first two-pointer just 49 seconds into the game. This was then followed by a two-pointer by Kendall Lewis to bring the score up 4-0 Illinois State.
It wasn’t until four minutes in that Northern Iowa’s Austin Phyfe got the Panthers’ first goal and cut the lead down by two followed by a free throw from Phyfe again. Illinois State answered back with five more points before the Panthers rallied and made the score 9-7 Illinois State.
What ensued next was a seesawing game between the Panthers and the Redbirds with the lead changing back and forth nine times between the two teams, including five times in the first half. UNI held onto a narrow 30-28 lead in Northern Iowa’s favor entering the locker room.
The Panthers adjusted their course at halftime. According to Jacobson, this meant a change to their screen pattern as they’d been missing opportunities to break the game open in the first half.
The lead changed four more times in the early part of the second half and was tied for the last time at 35 points each, but a basket by sophomore forward Noah Carter broke the tie and the Panthers held the lead for the remaining 16:33 of the game. A pair of three-pointers by Green gave Northern Iowa it’s first double-digit lead at 51-38. In total, Green finished 6-for-10 on threes and was the leading scorer of the day with 24 points total.
Carter followed closely behind with 21 points for the Panthers. Freshman forward Tytan Anderson arrived in the second half and put up eight points in just under 17 minutes of game time, further solidifying himself as a crowd favorite.
Meanwhile, the UNI defense was able to keep Illinois State’s Antonio Reeves, the No. 2 scorer in the Missouri Valley Conference, to just 13 points.
Northern Iowa’s next game is Wednesday against Bradley University.
