CEDAR FALLS – UNI men’s basketball will look to finish the month of January strong on Wednesday night as the Panthers head to Peoria, Illinois for their first of two matchups this season against the defending Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) regular season champion Bradley Braves.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT at Carver Arena with live coverage available on CBS Sports Network as well as the Panther Sports Radio Network.
Northern Iowa will look to bounce back after falling at Drake on Saturday in a 77-63 loss to the reigning conference tournament champions. The Braves, who had won a league-best nine straight games prior to their 95-86 overtime loss to league-leading Indiana State on Saturday, will also look to rebound after a tough loss.
Bradley leads the all-time series with the Panthers by a narrow 38-35 margin, and have won the last three matchups. In the most recent game of the series, UNI challenged the top-seeded Braves in the quarterfinal round of the 2023 MVC Tournament in St. Louis with a career-best 34 points in a 72-66 loss at Enterprise Center. Under head coach Ben Jacobson, UNI is 27-14 against Bradley.
In Saturday’s loss at Drake, the Panthers gave the Bulldogs all they could handle despite being without Born (general illness). Northern Iowa’s defense kept Drake in check early in the game and gave the Panthers a big spark with an RJ Taylor steal and score to give UNI a two-point lead at the break. The Panther offense would struggle in the second half however despite a 8-0 run to begin the period as UNI was outscored 41-25 in the final 20 minutes.
Trey Campbell led Northern Iowa with a team-high 18 points with six rebounds, while Landon Wolf recorded an 11-point performance with three made three-point baskets, along with two rebounds. Nate Heise tallied nine points with a team-high seven rebounds, as Tytan Anderson finished the night with nine points, five rebounds and three assists. Cole Henry and Taylor both recorded five points, while Jacob Hutson finished with four points.
Born leads the Panthers with 14.4 points per game through 19 games played this season, while also leading the MVC in free throw percentage (91.9%) on 57-of-62 shooting from the charity stripe. His shooting clip at the free throw line is currently on pace to set a new single-season program record. Born has also scored in double-digit figures in 12 of his last 13 games.
Heise has posted 14.2 points a game with 6.1 rebounds per contest, while Anderson, who is riding a 53-game streak of scoring at least one point, is also averaging 6.1 rebounds per game. At the three-point arc, Campbell is shooting 46.1% to the tune of nine points a game, while Hutson posts a shooting clip at 55% with a career-best 8.6points per game as the Panthers’ key inside man.
On milestone watch, Heise can become the 72nd player in program history to reach 800 career points with his next 11 points scored, while Born sits 54 points away from cracking into UNI’s top-ten all-time list. Campbell needs just six rebounds to reach 200 in just his second year of collegiate basketball, as Hutson can also reach 200 career boards with his next nine rebounds.
UNI is 82-12 (.872) under head coach Ben Jacobson when scoring 80+ points, and have won 20 of its last 25 games when scoring 80 or more points. Jacobson, who recently passed Henry P. Iba (Oklahoma State) for the MVC’s conference wins record, is just two wins away from his 350th career victory, all coming as the leader of the Panthers.
BRADLEY BRAVES
A top-70 program in the NET rankings, the reigning MVC regular season champion Braves have been on a tear, winning nine of their last ten games. Picked third in the MVC’s preseason poll, just one spot behind UNI with three first-place votes, graduate forward Malevy Leons was named Preseason First Team All-MVC with guard Duke Deen earning third team all-conference preseason recognition.
Bradley presents another tough defensive challenge for UNI, going up against the third-best scoring defense in the league at 67.6 points per game. The Braves have also been a hot shooting team from beyond the arc, draining 37.9% of shots from three-point range.
Four Braves enter Wednesday night averaging double-digit scoring figures, led by Connor Hickman’s 14.5 points per game. Deen has notched 13.8 points a game while posting the MVC’s best individual assist/turnover ratio (2.47), while Leons is recording 11.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and a league-high 37 total assists. Darius Hannah is also recording 11.4 points per game, shooting a league-best 62.9% from the floor.
UNI men’s basketball (12-9 / 6-4 MVC) at Bradley (15-6 / 7-3 MVC)
Jan. 31, 2023 | 7p.m. CT
Peoria, Ill. | Carver Arena (11,444)
CBS Sports Network (John Sadak: Play-by-Play / Tre Demps: Analyst)
Panther Sports Radio Network (J.W. Cox: Play-by-Play / Kevin Boyle: Analyst)
