CEDAR FALLS – UNI women’s basketball wraps up its Illinois trip with a matchup at Bradley on Sunday, January 12. This will be the 89th meeting between these two programs with UNI holding a 51-37 record including a six-game streak. The last time these teams met was inside the McLeod Center where the Panthers took home a 96-61 victory last season.
UNI is coming off a 79-66 loss to Illinois State in Normal Illinois for the Panthers’ first MVC loss of the season. In that matchup, Maya McDermott became the fifth Panther in program history to eclipse 400 assists in a career. Emerson Green led UNI with 13 points. Ryley Goebel and Taryn Wharton were the other two Panthers in double figures with 11 points each. Goebel finished with three blocks.
UNI continued an active program-record 547- game three-pointer streak that started December 6, 2008, versus Green Bay (6-of-19) following a 0-of-14 outing from behind the three-point arc December 3, 2008, against Northern Illinois. The Panthers knocked down six threes against Illinois State to continue the streak.
UNI checks in at no. 80 in the NET Rankings. The Panthers rank third in the Valley behind Belmont (56) and Murray State (61). Drake is number four at 86. Bradley checks in at 189. This will be UNI’s seventh Quad 4 matchup including victories over Pitt, South Dakota, Indiana State, Valparaiso, and UIC and a loss to Illinois State this season.
Kayba Laube continues to eye the 1,000-point club as she sits with 918 points, just 82 short of being UNI’s 31st member and fourth member in the last two seasons after Grace Boffeli, Maya McDermott, and Emerson Green joined last season. Laube currently holds UNI’s second spot in three-point percentage with a career mark of 42.2% and is on pace to break the Panthers’ single-season record of 52.8% set by Kris Huffman in the 1988-89 season. Laube is just 11 threes away (239) from being the third Panther on UNI’s 250+ three-pointer list.
As of January 11, the Panther team leads the Valley in a number of statistical categories including turnover margin (4.80) and turnovers per game (13). UNI also ranks second in the Valley in field goal percentage (45.5) and three-point percentage (38.1) and is third in assist/turnover ratio (1.13), steals per game (9.4), threes per game (8.1), and turnovers forced per game (17.8). The Panthers’ 38.1% from beyond the arc is the ninth-best mark in the nation. Individually, multiple Panther athletes are among the tops in the Valley. Maya McDermott leads the MVC in assist/turnover ratio (2.61), field goal attempts (252), field goals (112), free throw percentage (93.1), points (310), and points per game (20.7). McDermott’s 20.7 points per game is ranked 14th in the nation while her 93.1% from the free throw line is 15th. McDermott is second in the conference in assists (73) while sitting third in assists per game (4.9). Kayba Laube leads the MVC from beyond the arc including three-point percentage (51.6), three-pointers (47), and threes per game (3.13). Laube’s 51.6% from deep is the second-best mark in the country while her 3.13 threes per game is seventh and her 47 total threes are ninth. Ryley Goebel is second in Valley in steals (40), steals per game (2.67), blocks (32) and blocks per game (2.13).
UNI (8-7 / 3-1 MVC) at Bradley (8-7 / 2-2 MVC)
2 p.m. CT | January 12, 2024
Renaissance Coliseum | Peoria, Illinois
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