Panther women's basketball returns home for two conference games

UNI women's basketball vs. Missouri State

6 p.m. | Jan. 13
Cedar Falls, IA | McLeod Center (6,650)
ESPN+ (Brad Wells: Play-by-play / Jacqui Kalin: Analyst)

UNI women's basketball vs. Southern Illinois

2 p.m. | Jan. 15
Cedar Falls, IA | McLeod Center (6,650)
ESPN3 (Announcers TBA)
1540 KXEL: Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhaus-Schulz: Play-by-play)

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- After over a month on the road, the UNI women's basketball team returns home for two big conference matchups.

After splitting their first week of MVC play 1-1, the Panthers have their first home contests against MVC opponents. UNI will take on two of the top three teams in the MVC after two weeks of conference play in Missouri State and Southern Illinois. The Panthers have a long history with both teams having this week's matchups be the 87th and 79th matchups respectively.

THE PANTHERS:
- The Panthers split their first MVC series this week on the road. UNI lost a close game to the Valparaiso Beacons 58-60 on Friday but bounced back on Sunday with a convincing 58-54 win over the Loyola Ramblers.
- Panther center Grace Boffeli had the first double-double of her collegiate career on Friday night against the Beacons. Boffeli made 13 points in the paint and grabbed 13 boards in the loss.
- UNI returns home for a game for the first time in over a month. The Panthers were last in the McLeod Center on December 6th, winning against Graceland 110-34. The first games of 2022 originally scheduled at the McLeod Center were postponed due to health and safety protocols within UNI's program.
- The Panthers continue to be one of the Top 15 teams in the country when it comes to ball protection. UNI is 12th in the nation in turnovers per game at 12.1 and 13th in assist to turnover ratio at 1.27.

THE LADY BEARS:
- Missouri State currently has the best overall record in the MVC at 11-2. Their only losses on the season so far were against Power 5 teams Oklahoma State and LSU.
- The Lady Bears are currently receiving votes in both the AP Top 25 poll and the Coaches poll. Missouri State received 15 votes in the AP poll while only receiving 2 votes in the USA Today/WBCA Coaches poll.
- Missouri State is currently on their second longest winning streak against conference opponents in program history, with 21 straight MVC wins. The 21 wins is also the fourth longest MVC winning streak in Valley history.
- The Lady Bears have been a defensive powerhouse so far this season, having the sixth-best 3-point defense in the nation with a .234 percentage, while also ranking in the top 20 in scoring defense (6th - 49.9), blocks/game (15th - 5.8) and field goal percentage defense (7th - .336).
- Missouri State is without one of their top players for the season. Senior forward Jasmine Franklin is out for the rest of the season after tearing her ACL in the Lady Bears game against Toledo on December 21st.

THE SALUKIS:
- Southern Illinois will return to action this week after postponing a home game against Missouri State on January 7th. This is the second 10+ day layoff for Southern this season, as the cancellation of a game against IUPUI due to COVID concerns with the Jaguars led to a 15-day gap between games in November.
- The Salukis will make an Iowa road swing with a stop in Des Moines at Drake on Thursday before their game with UNI on Saturday.
- Southern Illinois is led by graduate student guard Makenzie Silvey and graduate student guard Abby Brockmeyer. Silvey averages 15.9 points a game in 34.6 minutes played with 3.8 assists and 1.6 steals. Silvey has also been named MVC Player of the Week twice so far this season. Brockmeyer averages 15.8 points a game in 32.2 minutes with 10.3 rebounds and 2 assists.
- Along with being one of the leaders on the team, Brockmeyer is also one of the best players in the country at getting double-doubles. Brockmeyer is 44th in the nation for double-doubles with 5 on the season so far. That also puts Brockmeyer at 3rd in the MVC, behind Evansville's Abby Feit and Missouri State's Jasmine Franklin.

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