CEDAR FALLS – UNI women’s basketball travels back to UIC to take on the Flames in a rescheduled contest from the original date of January 12. The Panthers and the Flames have met on 18 other occasions with the latest coming in a 73-57 victory for the Panthers in March of 2023. In that matchup, four Panthers scored in double-figures where Grace Boffeli scored 23, Emerson Green scored 11, and both Rachael Heittola and Cailyn Morgan scored 10 points.
UNI is coming off its sixth 100+-point performance in program history and its 700th program win in a 105-59 victory over Bradley. In that matchup, Grace Boffeli led the UNI offense with 24 points and finished one rebound short of her fifth double-double of the season with nine rebounds.
The Panthers scored 34 points in the first quarter of action against Bradley. That mark is the highest in a quarter this season and the highest in an opening frame at a road contest in program history. UNI’s 60 points at halftime against Bradley was a Renaissance Coliseum record. The 46-point margin is the largest margin of victory for the Panthers in a conference matchup since a 48-point victory over Evansville in the 2020-21 season. Northern Iowa recorded 42 field goals in the matchup. That is a new program record which was previously 41 in both a 1983 game against UIC and a 1981 game against Marycrest.
Forward Grace Boffeli recorded nine rebounds in the game against the Braves. Her 734 career rebounds are just nine short of Erin Brocka’s (2007-11) no. eight spot with 743 rebounds. Guard Emerson Green is nearing the 1,000-point mark in a UNI uniform. She is 13 points away from the milestone. Maya McDermott leads both the conference and the nation in free throw percentage. Her 95.5% from the stripe has seen all 21 free throws go down inside the McLeod Center and all 21 in conference play. She is second in the conference with 2.88 assists per turnover. That mark is the fifteenth-best in the nation.
As a team, UNI leads the conference with a league-low 12.6 turnovers per game. The Panthers continued their streak of matchups with a three-pointer against Bradley with 15 three-pointers against the Braves. They are now sitting with an active, 497-game streak which began in December of 2008. As a program, the Panther women’s basketball team is nine conference wins away from 500. Tanya Warren needs two MVC victories to break the 200-conference-win threshold and three Valley wins to tie Cheryl Burnett (Missouri State 1988-02) for the MVC’s all-time conference coaching wins top spot.
UIC is in the midst of a season-high four-game win streak after a 76-48 victory over Indiana State. That matchup saw the Flames outscore the Sycamores 50-22 in the second half after trailing for most of the first half. In the second half, UIC shot an impressive 65% (17-for-26) from the floor and 85% (12-for-14) from the free-throw line. Junior forward Makiyah Williams led the Flames scoring efforts with 18 points off the bench with grad guard Keimari Rimmer and senior guard/forward Jaida McCloud recording double-figures at 11 points each.
This season, four Flames are averaging double-figure points with Williams leading the way with 12.4 per game. Rimmer is averaging 10.7 points per game, grad guard Dais’Ja Trotter is averaging 10.5, and senior guard Danyel Middleton is averaging 10.1 points per game.
UNI (6-11 / 5-3 MVC) at UIC (12-7 / 5-3 MVC)
6 p.m. CT | Jan. 31
Credit Union 1 Arena | Chicago, Illinois
ESPN+
Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
