CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – The University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball squad snapped a three-game losing slide with a 65-48 victory over the visiting Indiana State Sycamores on Wednesday night in the McLeod Center.
UNI captured its first Missouri Valley Conference victory of the season and improved to 11-4 on the year, 1-2 in league play. Indiana State dropped to 10-4 overall and 1-2 in MVC action.
The Panthers were led in scoring by junior Anthony James with 16 points and junior guard Marc Sonnen with 15 points. Sonnen made 5-of-10 shots from the field, including 3-of-5 from beyond the arc.
Indiana State was led by Dwayne Lathan’s 15 points off the bench. Carl Richard also added 10 points for the Sycamores.
UNI limited Indiana State to 23.8 percent shooting in the first half in building a 32-16 lead at the intermission. But the Sycamores put together a 12-1 run to begin the second half that cut the UNI lead to 33-28 with 17:22 remaining in the game.
UNI responded with a 9-0 run of its own to push the lead back to 42-28 with 13:54 left. The final points of the run came on a triple from Sonnen.
Indiana State would once again rally and trim the lead to five at 49-44 with 6:16 left following a 3-pointer from R.J. Mahurin. However, junior forward Jake Koch buried back-to-back 3-pointers at the 4:05 mark and the 3:42 mark to push the lead back to 13 at 59-46 and effectively clinch the victory for the home squad.
UNI will travel to Drake on Saturday for a 7 p.m. tip in the Knapp Center. The game will be broadcast live on Mediacom Connections channel 22 across the state of Iowa.
NOTES: UNI improved to 19-1 all-time in Panther Sports Television Network broadcasts … it’s the 25th time in the Ben Jacobson coaching era that UNI held the opponent to less than 50 points … UNI ran its mark to 24-1 in games in which the opposition scores 50 or less under coach Jacobson … Jake Koch came into the game 0-for-6 from the field in MVC action this season – but he drained four field goals, including two 3-pointers in the win over Indiana State … UNI won the rebounding battle, 36-30 … Johnny Moran made his 166th career 3-pointer to move into a tie for third place on the Panthers’ all-time made 3-pointers list with Darian DeVries (1995-98) … Moran has started all 116 games of his UNI career … Sonnen’s 15 points are a season-high … Sonnen has scored in double figures on eight occasions this season.
Courtesy: UNI Athletics Communications
