University of Northern Iowa
Murray State
Panther men’s basketball begins southern swing at Murray State
1/12/2024 10:27:00 AM | Men's Basketball
UNI kicks off two-game road trip to Kentucky and Tennessee against the Racers on Sunday afternoon.
UNI men's basketball (8-8 / 2-3 MVC) at Murray State (7-9 / 4-1 MVC)
- Jan. 14, 2023 | 3 p.m. CT
- Murray, Ky. | CFSB Center (8,600)
- ESPN+ (Eric Braley: Play-by-Play / Kevin Lehman: Analyst)
- Panther Sports Radio Network (J.W. Cox: Play-by-Play)
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- UNI men's basketball will escape the snowy plains of Iowa to begin a two-game Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) road trip on Sunday afternoon, making its first-ever stop in western Kentucky to take on the Murray State Racers.
Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT with live coverage available on ESPN+ and the Panther Sports Radio Network.
Coming off the program's 700th win as a Division I program in a 67-59 home win over UIC on Wednesday, the Panthers look to continue to climb the MVC standings, attempting to knock off a Racers team that enters the weekend in a five-way tie for first-place in the league standings at 4-1. Northern Iowa won the first-ever meeting between the two program's last January in the McLeod Center by a score of 75-67.
UNI will face a familiar foe in Sunday's matchup against Murray State head coach Steve Prohm. The Panthers went 1-1 against Prohm during his six-year tenure at Iowa State (2015-21), which included an 81-79 win over the then No. 5 Cyclones during Prohm's first season at Iowa State.
In their midweek victory over the Flames, the Panthers kept the MVC's top blocking team in check thanks to a season-high 12 steal performance by the UNI defense. UNI also scored 19 points off of 18 UIC turnovers while shooting 49% from the field.
Freshman Kyle Pock finished the night with a game-high 13 points with a career-high 24 minutes played, knocking down three baskets from beyond the arc. Bowen Born, Tytan Anderson and Michael Duax all notched 12 points each in the Panther win, while Duax also set a new season-best with three steals. Trey Campbell also recorded a season-high three takeaways, while also scoring six points with a team-high six rebounds. Nate Heise tallied nine points.
Born leads the Panthers through 16 games with a 14.8-point per game average shooting 40.7% from the field and 95.7% from the free throw line, the fourth-best clip in the nation. Heise has notched 13.5 point a game and 5.4 rebounds with a team-high 38 assists and nine blocks, while Anderson has recorded 11.9 points with a team-leading 6.3 rebounding average per game. Jacob Hutson is averaging 9.6 points a game, the best single-season average of his career, while Campbell has posted nine points per game with a 49% shooting clip.
UNI is 81-12 (.870) under head coach Ben Jacobson when scoring 80+ points, and have won 19 of its last 24 games when scoring 80 or more points.
Jacobson also continues his march towards MVC history, sitting two MVC wins shy of tying former Oklahoma State coach Henry P. Iba for the league record for most conference only victories.
Most MVC Wins (Conference only games)
- Henry P. Iba (Oklahoma State) - 187
- Ben Jacobson (UNI) - 185
- Dana Altman (Creighton) - 182
- Eddie Hickey (Creighton/Saint Louis) - 163
- Barry Hinson (Missouri State/Southern Illinois) - 155
Anderson enters Sunday's contest on a 48-game stretch with at least one point scored, while Born carries the program's third-highest career free throw percentage into the game against the Racers (85.9%). Landon Wolf seeks to reach 300 career points with his next eight points, while both Duax and Campbell are also closing in on 400 career points.
MURRAY STATE RACERS
After going 1-6 in the month of December, the Racers have won four straight heading into Sunday and are in a five-way tie for first-place in the MVC standings at 4-1. In its last outing on Wednesday, Murray State rolled past Missouri State last time out in a 77-53 road win in Springfield.
The Racers were picked seventh in this year's MVC preseason poll, with senior guard Rob Perry being named Second Team All-MVC Preseason. Murray State has committed a league-best 9.1 turnovers per game this year, the seventh fewest in the country. The Racers have struggled defensively, however, allowing a league-worst 45.9% shooting defense.
Rob Perry leads a quartet of Racers averaging double-digit scoring figures with 14.1 points per game. JaCobi Wood has notched 13.2 points and a team-high 4.5 assists a game, with Brian Moore Jr. at 12.3 points and Quincy Anderson with 10.6 points per contest. Nick Ellington leads MSU in rebounds per game (6.1), as well as steals (17) and blocks (25).
