University of Northern Iowa Athletics
University of Northern Iowa
*Southwest Missouri State
Panthers Take Down SMS, 62-53
1/18/2005 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 18, 2005
The University of Northern Iowa overcame a 14-point deficit with 15 minutes to play en route to a 62-53 win at Southwest Missouri State on Jan. 18 at the Hammons Student Center.
Down 43-29 with 15 minutes left, UNI went on a 33-10 run the rest of the way to pull out the victory. The Panthers took their first lead, 50-49, on a turnaround jumper by forward Grant Stout (New Sharon, Iowa). A pair of SMS free throws gave the Bears the lead back briefly at 51-10, before John Little (Peoria, Ill.) and Erik Crawford (Oakdale, Minn.) hit back-to-back threes to give UNI the lead for good, 56-51, with just over three minutes left. The Panthers hit enough free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Stout led the way for UNI with a career-high 21 points, and he added six rebounds, four blocks and four steals. Ben Jacobson (Sioux City, Iowa) had 15 points and Crawford had 11 and a team-high seven rebounds.
The Bears jumped out to an 11-0 lead at the start of the game, as UNI missed its first 11 shots from the field and went nearly six minutes without scoring. After the Panthers came back to tie the game at 13-all, SMS broke free again, as UNI once again went nearly six minutes without a field goal late in the first half. The Bears led 31-19 at intermission, as UNI connected on just 33 percent of its field goals in the first half and were 0-for-8 from three-point range.
The tables turned in the second half, as UNI was a blistering 16-for-22 (72.7 percent) from the field after intermission, including 6-for-8 on threes. SMS, which did not score a field goal in the final 10 minutes of the game, hit on just 33 percent (7-for-21) of its attempts and turned the ball over 10 times after halftime.
The win snapped a seven-game losing streak for UNI at the Hammons Student Center. UNI improved to 13-4 overall, 4-2 in the MVC with the win, while SMS fell to 7-8, 1-6.
