University of Northern Iowa Athletics
University of Northern Iowa
Alcorn State
UNI men’s basketball takes on Alcorn State in non-conference home finale
12/15/2023 10:07:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Panther take on Braves ahead of holiday break at home. Tickets available for purchase.
UNI men's basketball (4-7 / 0-2 MVC) vs. Alcorn State (1-9 / 0-0 SWAC)
- Dec. 17, 2023 | 1 p.m. CT
- Cedar Falls, Iowa | McLeod Center (6,650)
- ESPN+ (Brad Wells: Play-by-Play / Kevin Lehman: Analyst)
- Panther Sports Radio Network (J.W. Cox: Play-by-Play / Kevin Boyle: Analyst)
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- UNI men's basketball will host its final home game of the non-conference schedule on Sunday afternoon as the Panthers face off against the Alcorn State Braves at 1 p.m. CT inside the McLeod Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT with live coverage available on ESPN+ and the Panther Sports Radio Network. Tickets are available for purchase online at UNIpanthers.com/tickets, or by calling 319-273-4849.
Fans can also take holiday pictures with Santa on the north concourse of the McLeod Center.
Northern Iowa matches up with its second consecutive Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) opponent and will look to stack consecutive wins for the first time this season after a 74-55 win over Prairie View A&M on Tuesday. The Panthers improved to 7-0 all-time against SWAC opponents after Tuesday night's victory. UNI won the only other matchup with the Braves in Nov. 2017 in a 73-45 home win.
UNI dominated its matchup with Prairie View A&M, shooting 51.2% from the field and holding its opponents to under 40% with a season-high 23 made free throws. Under head coach Ben Jacobson, the Panthers are 207-113 (.646) in games following a win.
Nate Heise led UNI in its 19-point win with a career-high 25 points on six-of-nine shooting with 11 made free throws, two blocks and a season-best ten rebounds for a double-double performance, the second of his career. Tytan Anderson posted 17 points with seven rebounds on four-of-five shooting with nine made free throws, a pair of steals and a game-high three assists. Bowen Born tallied 13 points, including three made baskets from three-point range, while Trey Campbell finished with eight points. Michael Duax recorded five points, with Landon Wolf draining one three pointer.
The three-point game has come on strong for the Panthers recently, with UNI making at least eight three-pointers in each of their last five games, shooting 48% from beyond the arc during that stretch. Indiana State is the only other program in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) to have accomplished this in that span. 41% of UNI's shot attempts from the floor have come from three-point range.
Three Panthers enter Sunday's matchup averaging 10+ points per game, led by a 14.5 average from Heise, as well as 13 points per game from Born and 11.3 points by Anderson. Anderson leads UNI off the class with 6.8 rebounds per contest, while Heise also leads with 2.8 assists per game. Campbell and Born lead the way for the Panthers with a team-high 22made three-pointers each this year, as well as 11 steals each.
UNI is 80-11 (.879) under head coach Ben Jacobson when scoring 80+ points, and have won 18 of its last 23 games when scoring 80 or more points.
Anderson enters Saturday's contest on a 43-game scoring streak with at least one point scored, while Born carries the program's fourth-highest career free throw percentage into the game against the Rockets (84.9%). Landon Wolf seeks to reach 300 career points with his next 11 points. Collectively as a program, the Panthers are four victories away from 700 since shifting to Division I.
ALCORN STATE BRAVES
The Braves begin a two-game swing through Iowa with Sunday's matchup in Cedar Falls with Alcorn State having dropped its last nine games following an eight-point win over Xavier University of Louisiana back in November. Alcorn State will play at Drake on Tuesday night.
All nine of the Braves' losses this season have come by double-digits, including a 105-65 loss at Maryland in their last outing on Tuesday. Byron Joshua led Alcorn State with 14 points, with Dekedran Thorn scoring 13 points and Stephen Byard notching an 11-point game.
Alcorn State was picked third in this year's SWAC preseason poll behind Texas Southern and Grambling State following an 18-14 campaign in 2022-23. Senior forward Jeremiah Kendall was the lone Brave to earn preseason honors being named Preseason First Team All-SWAC.
The Braves have struggled on both ends of the floor in its first ten games this year, shooting just 40.6% from the field and giving up 49% of shot attempts.Alcorn State ranks in the top-100 nationally with 22 free throw attempts per game. Kendall leads the Braves' offense with 15 points per game, along with a team-high 7.1 rebounds per contest. Joshua meanwhile averages 12.9 points for the Braves, with Jeremiah Gambrell posting a 10.5 points per game average.
