UNI men’s basketball vs. Northern Illinois
- 1 p.m. CT | Nov. 26, 2022
- Cedar Falls, Iowa | McLeod Center (6,650)
- ESPN+ (Eric Braley: Play-by-Play / Adam DeJoode: Analyst)
- Panther Sports Radio Network (J.W. Cox: Play-by-Play)
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — UNI men’s basketball returns home on Saturday afternoon for a post-Thanksgiving showdown against the neighboring Huskies of Northern Illinois University at 1 p.m. CT in the McLeod Center.
The Panthers seek to win their fourth consecutive game against the Huskies (2-4) to begin a long home stretch to close out 2022. Seven of UNI’s next nine games are slated to be played inside the McLeod Center, where the Panthers hold a 77.8 win percentage all-time.
UNI PANTHERS
UNI looks to snap a three-game skid this Saturday after dropping consecutive games at the Hall of Fame Classic earlier this week in Kansas City. The Panthers shot 63% from the field in the first half of their opening game against San Francisco, but were cooled off by the Dons in the second half in a 75-69 loss. James Betz led with a career-high 19 points for UNI as Bowen Born scored 14 points.
In game two against Grand Canyon, the Panthers struggled to score against the Antelopes in the opening stanza, but made a furious second half comeback in the closing minutes only to fall short, 69-67. Born posted a game-high 19 points in the loss, while Tytan Anderson recorded his third consecutive game with a double-double, scoring 18 points with 12 rebounds. Michael Duax, making just his second career start scored 11 points as Trey Campbell notched 10 points in the loss.
NORTHERN ILLINOIS HUSKIES
The Huskies have struggled in recent years, coming off a difficult 9-21 season a year ago and 6-14 mark in the Mid-American Conference (MAC). Picked 12th in MAC preseason poll, the Huskies have not finished in the top half of the league standings since a second-place finish during the 2005-06 season.
Junior guard Keshawn Williams leads Northern Illinois averaging 17 points per game, while David Coit has posted 14.7 points per contest, while also leading the Huskies with a team-high 20 made three-point shots. Zarique Nutter leads with just over 7 rebounds a game as Anthony Crump has notched 5.3 boards a game, along with a team-high 9 steals.
The Huskies come to Cedar Falls having dropped two of their last three games as part of the Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off. Northern Illinois dropped its opening game at Georgia Tech 68-50 in Atlanta last week, before coming up short in an 88-54 defeat against Sam Houston State in Florida on Tuesday. The Huskies bounced back on Wednesday night with an 86-61 victory over Long Island, which saw Williams lead with 28 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the floor.
PANTHER NOTES
- Tytan Anderson leads the Missouri Valley Conference with 3 double-doubles this year. Having notched the first of his career at Richmond, Anderson has recorded 45 points (15.0 PPG) and 32 rebounds (10.6 RPG) this season.
- Anderson’s 10.6 rebounds per game through the first three games of the season ranks first in the MVC.
- Bowen Born’s 83.2% career mark from the free throw line ranks 7th all-time in program history.
- Born is 12 points from joining UNI’s top-100 list of all-time scorers. The Norwalk, Iowa native has scored 573 points in his collegiate career and sits 103rd on UNI’s all-time list.
- UNI is 77-9 when scoring 80 points or more under head coach Ben Jacobson.
- Ben Jacobson is six victories from passing Dana Altman for third on the MVC’s all-time wins list. Jacobson has amassed 322 career wins in his 17 seasons with the Panthers, while Altman won 327 games at Creighton from 1994 to 2010.
