University of Northern Iowa Athletics
University of Northern Iowa
Belmont
Panthers take on Belmont Bruins in Sunday afternoon action
1/20/2024 5:32:00 PM | Women's Basketball
UNI women’s basketball looks to close a perfect weekend on Sunday against Belmont.
UNI (5-9 / 4-1 MVC) vs. Belmont (12-5 / 5-1 MVC)
- 2 p.m. CT | Jan. 21
- Cedar Falls, Iowa | McLeod Center
- ESPN+
- Panther Sports Radio Network (Chris Kleinhans-Schulz: Play-by-Play)
CEDAR FALLS --- UNI women's basketball is set to take on the Belmont Bruins for just the fourth time in the history of the two programs. All three of the previous meetings came last season with the Panthers and the Bruins facing off in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals. Belmont has taken all three contests with their last victory coming in the MVC Tournament by a score of 69-62.
The Panthers are coming off their fourth straight victory to open 2024. In their last matchup, UNI took down then-undefeated Murray State by a score of 95-75. Three Panthers recorded 20+-point games with Emerson Green leading the offense with 23 points and both Maya McDermott and Kayba Laube tallying 20 points each. This was the first time three Panthers scored over 20 points in the same game since a road matchup at Southern Illinois in January 2023.
Forward Grace Boffeli recorded 13 rebounds in the game against the Racers which broke her into UNI's top-10 career rebounding, passing Julie Street (1989-94) and her 700 rebounds. She is now just six rebounds from tying Allison Starr (1996-00) with 711 career rebounds. Both guard Maya McDermott and forward Grace Boffeli are on track to join the Panthers' 1,000-point club. McDermott is just nine points away from being the 27th member of UNI's 1,000-point club and the 10th member in the Tanya Warren era. Boffeli sits 33 points away from topping the 1,000-point threshold. McDermott leads both the conference and the nation in free throw percentage. Her 95.1% from the stripe has seen all 21 free throws go down inside the McLeod Center and all 18 in conference play. She also leads the conference with 3.14 assists per turnover. That mark is seventh-best in the nation.
As a team, UNI leads the conference with a league-low 12.9 turnovers per game. The Panthers continued their streak of matchups with a three-pointer against Murray State with 11 three-pointers against the Racers. They are now sitting with an active, 494-game streak which began in December of 2008. As a program, the Panther women's basketball team is just one win away from crossing the 700-win mark. They are also 10 conference wins away from 500.  Tanya Warren needs three MVC victories to break the 200-conference-win threshold and four Valley wins to claim the MVC's top spot for conference coaching wins.
The Belmont Bruins are coming off a 69-65 loss to Drake on Friday night. The matchup saw Belmont hold a five-point lead with just over six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter before Drake strung together a five-point run in the last 1:29 to claim the four-point victory. Four Bruins saw double figures against Drake with junior forward Kendal Cheesman recording 18, redshirt junior guard Tuti Jones tallying 15, freshman guard Jaylin Banks putting up 12, and junior guard Kilyn McGuff finishing with 11 points. Only two other Bruins players scored points against Drake for a combined total of nine points.
This season, both Banks and junior forward Tessa Miller are leading the Bruins offense with 12.6 points per game. Miller is averaging 6.4 rebounds per game over her 17 starts this season and has shot the ball at a 52.6% (81-for-154) clip from the floor.
The Bruins' defense has been a key to the team's success this season as one of the top defenses in the Valley. The defense only allows a league-low 60.4 points per game. It does so by holding opposing offenses to a league-low 38.2% from the floor and a league-low 26.2% from beyond the arc.
