University of Northern Iowa
Dayton
UNI Tops Dayton 74-67 in Las Vegas Holiday Invitational
12/23/2005 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 23, 2005
Las Vegas, Nev. - Senior guard Ben Jacobson (Sioux City, Iowa) scored a season-high 21 points to help lead the University of Northern Iowa to a 74-67 win over Dayton tonight in the Las Vegas Holiday Invitational. With the win, UNI finished 4-0 in the event, tying Cincinnati (also 4-0) for the tournament championship.
With its seventh-straight win, UNI improved to 10-1 on the season, while Dayton fell to 8-5. UNI's Jacobson and Crawford were named to the all-tournament team.
In addition to his scoring, Jacobson had four assists and three steals on the night, and was one of four Panthers in double-figure scoring. Erik Crawford (Oakdale, Minn.) had 14 points - all in the second half - while Eric Coleman (Maplewood, Minn.) had 12 and Grant Stout (New Sharon, Iowa) added 10. Stout had his third double-double in the past four games with 10 rebounds.
The Panthers never trailed in the game, jumping to an 8-0 lead, including three-pointers by Jacobson and Brooks McKowen (Fairbank, Iowa) in the game's first few minutes. UNI built its lead to as large as 12 points, 25-13, on a Stout trey with 7:29 left. But Dayton responded with a 16-7 run over the rest of the half to pull within three, 32-29, at intermission.
UNI jumped out quickly at the start of the second half, again extending to a 12-point advantage (44-32), with 13:59 left in the game. That started a Flyers rally, as UD went on a 12-3 streak to pull within 47-44 with 8:44 remaining. That was as close as Dayton would get, however, as Crawford hit a jumper in the lane, Coleman had a conventional three-point play, and Crawford hit two free throws after a technical foul on the UD bench to make the score 54-44 with just under seven minutes left.
Dayton pulled to within five on three occasions in the game's closing moments, but the Panthers hit 10-of-11 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory. The Panthers connected on 22 charity tosses on the night to just 12 for Dayton, and made eight three-pointers to five for the Flyers. Dayton won the battle of rebounding, 46-28, but UNI set a school-record for fewest turnovers in a game, committing just three on the night, compared to 14 for Dayton.
The Panthers are next in action Wednesday, Dec. 28, when they open Missouri Valley Conference play at Bradley. Tipoff from Carver Arena is set for 7:05 p.m.
