Panther men's basketball battles No. 18 Virginia on the road

UNI men's basketball at No. 18 Virginia

7 p.m. CT | Nov. 14, 2022
Charlottesville, Va. | John Paul Jones Arena (14,593)
ACC Network (Mike Corey: Play-by-Play / Cory Alexander: Analyst)
Panther Sports Radio Network (J.W. Cox: Play-by-Play)

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- UNI men's basketball wraps its two-game road trip on the east coast as it battles the No. 18 Virginia Cavaliers on Monday night at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.

The Panthers and Cavaliers meet for just the second time in history and first time since December 2013, when Virginia edged UNI 57-43 at home. UNI enters Monday's matchup coming off a 68-53 loss at Richmond on Friday, while the Cavaliers rolled past Monmouth by a score of 89-42 in the second of three consecutive home games.

UNI PANTHERS
Bowen Born led UNI with a team-high 17 points against Richmond, as Tytan Anderson notched his first career double-double with a career-best 13 points and 10 rebounds. Nate Heise tallied 10 points with a pair of steals in the loss, while Trey Campbell and Betz both finished with 6 points.

The Panthers were held to 32.8% shooting from the field against Richmond, struggling to finish shots inside the paint and from three-point range. UNI is 4-6 against current Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) teams, and seeks its first win against an ACC team since defeating North Carolina State at the 2017 Battle 4 Atlantis.

Entering the third game of the season, Heise has a chance to become the 112th member of UNI's 500 career point club, sitting 10 points shy of 500. At the charity stripe, Born enters Monday's contest with an 85.2% career free throw percentage, fourth highest in school history while also sitting two made free throws away from 100 as a Panther.

VIRGINIA CAVALIERS
Picked third in the ACC preseason poll behind North Carolina and Duke, the Cavaliers finished last season with a 21-14 record and 12-8 mark in conference play a year ago. Virginia picked up wins over Mississippi State and North Texas in the 2022 NIT Tournament before falling to St. Bonaventure in the quarterfinal round.

The Cavaliers return all five starters from last season's roster, including fifth year guard Jayden Gardner, who was named Preseason Second Team All-ACC this year. Virginia's veteran experience helped the Cavaliers to a dominating 46-point victory over Monmouth on Friday, led by 15 points from Isaac McKneely and 13 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks from Ryan Dunn. The Cavaliers held Monmouth scoreless for the final four and a half minutes in the opening half and finished with 13 three-point baskets on 25 attempts (52%).

PANTHER NOTES

Virginia is the second of 10 opponents this season for UNI that made a national postseason tournament last year. Three Panther opponents played in last season's NCAA Tournament (Richmond, San Francisco, Murray State), with 6 teams in the NIT (Virginia, Toledo, Towson, St. Bonaventure, Belmont, Missouri State). Drake also competed in the CBI Tournament.
Head coach Ben Jacobson is 6 wins away from passing Dana Altman as the third winningest coach in Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) history. Jacobson has recorded 322 career wins at UNI, while Altman notched 327 victories at Creighton from 1994 to 2010.
The Panthers are 77-9 under Ben Jacobson when scoring 80 or more points.

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