University of Northern Iowa
Longwood
Coleman Leads UNI to Win Over Longwood
12/23/2004 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 23, 2004
Cedar Falls, Iowa - Freshman center Eric Coleman (Maplewood, Minn.) tied his career high with 24 points, to lead the University of Northern Iowa men's basketball team to an 84-63 win over Longwood Thursday night in the UNI-Dome.
Coleman was a perfect eight-for-eight from the field, and hit eight-of-11 from the free throw line to lead all players in scoring. Also in double figures for the Panthers were Erik Crawford (Oakdale, Minn.) with 13 and Grant Stout (New Sharon, Iowa) with 13. Coleman and Stout led UNI with eight rebounds apiece.
UNI won its fourth straight game and improved to 7-2 on the season, while Longwood fell to 1-13.
The Panthers jumped on the Lancers early, opening up an 11-2 advantage in the game's first four minutes. Coleman had two buckets and Jacobson one of his four three-pointers during that early stretch. After Longwood pulled within 14-10, UNI went on an 11-0 run to open a 25-10 edge, with Coleman scoring nine straight points. UNI led 47-26 at halftime, as Coleman scored 17 points and Jacobson had 12 in the first half.
Longwood pulled with 14 points, 56-42, on a short jump hook by Leland Beale with 13:51 left in the game. But UNI quickly responded over the next minute and a half, as Crawford and Coleman had back-to-back buckets, followed by a Jacobson three-pointer, to rebuild the lead to 63-42. The Lancers didn't get the lead to less than 20 points the rest of the way.
For the eighth time in nine games, the Panthers shot greater than 50 percent from the field as a team. UNI connected on 32-of-58 field goals on the night (.552), despite the Panthers shooting a season-worst 6-of-19 (.316) from three-point range. UNI ranks second in the nation in team field goal percentage at .537.
UNI's next game is next Thursday (Dec. 30), when it travels to Las Vegas, Nev., to face Valparaiso in the Las Vegas Holiday Invitational. Tipoff time is set for 11:00 p.m. (CST). The Panthers will also play Northwestern State in Las Vegas on Dec. 31, with that tip time being 4:00 p.m. (CST). UNI's next home game is Mon., Jan. 3, when Illinois State comes to the UNI-Dome for a 7:05 p.m. tipoff.
