Courtesy: UNI Athletics Communications –
ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands – The University of Northern Iowa men’s basketball team dropped an 80-66 decision to the Maryland Terrapins on Sunday in the semifinals of 2013 Paradise Jam.
UNI (2-3 overall) jumped out to a 7-0 lead but Maryland (3-2 overall) answered quickly with a 12-1 run to take a 12-8 advantage.
UNI battled back to tie the game at 16-all, 18-all, 20-all and 22-all. Junior Nate Buss knocked down a triple to give UNI a 25-22 lead with 3:27 left in the first half. Buss then knocked down another triple with 2:57 left on a dish from sophomore Wes Washpun to give a 28-24 lead. However, Maryland closed the half on a 9-2 run to take a 33-30 lead into the intermission.
The Terps came out strong in the second half and opened up an 11-point bulge at 57-46. But the Panthers began chipping away and eventually closed to within 61-59 on the third three-pointer of the game by Buss with 5:54 left in the game.
On the Terps’ ensuing possession, Maryland’s Jake Layman scored on an alley-oop pass from Nick Faust and Buss fouled out on the play. Layman connected on the free throw for the conventional three-point play and the Panthers could get no closer than five points the rest of the way.
UNI junior Seth Tuttle led the Panthers with 19 points and nine rebounds. Junior Deon Mitchell chipped in with 13 points and five assists. Buss led the bench scoring for the Panthers with 11 points and was 3-of-4 from 3-point land.
Maryland was led by Evan Smotriycz, who scored 17 of his game-high 20 points in the second half. Layman scored 19 points and Faust had 17. Dez Wells contributed with 16 points and six assists.
UNI will take on the loser of the Providence/LaSalle game on Monday night at 6:30 p.m. in the third-place game. The game will be broadcast live on the CBS Sports Network with Danny Lee (play-by-play) and Kevin Lehman (analyst) on the call.
