While North Dakota State has been a force to be recknoed with, dominating nearly every football program in the FCS recently, the Bison were no match for the UNI women’s basketball team in a 95-63 season opening route on Wednesday, Nov. 6. 

The Panthers followed their dominance of the Bison with a 61-50 road victory against Wichita State on Saturday.  

The Panther women were selected third in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll and tenured head coach Tanya Warren was pleased with the attention to detail that led to the 32-point win over NDSU.

“I thought we did a really good job of setting screens, reading screens, making the extra pass,” Warren said.  “I just thought our execution was very, very good.”

All 11 Panthers that saw the floor scored, along with 42 bench points and five players notching double figures in a complete team win.

“That’s one of the things that we talked about all year is being able to go to our bench and there not being a dropoff,” Warren said. “I thought our bench was tremendous.”

Cedar Falls native Kam Finley, who scored 13 points to lead the second unit, echoed Warren’s sentiment.

“It’s extremely important because we always preach that the bench has to come in and keep that tempo and momentum up,” Finley said.

Karli Rucker, who was selected to the All-MVC preseason team, led the Panthers in scoring with 22 points along with six assists. The junior point guard was satisfied with the team’s mindset.

“Just being aggressive from the start,” Rucker said.  “Me being aggressive opens up the passing game […] just feeding off of each other, and like coach said, we really executed well.”

Rucker shot 6-7 and didn’t miss until the fourth quarter, including going 3-4 from behind the arc after shooting 41 percent from three last season.

“You know what makes Karli really special is her ability to shoot the three with efficiency, her midrange game and then her floater,” Warren said.  “She is a complete package offensively.”

Junior forward Megan Maahs tallied 11 points and five rebounds in her first game back from last year’s season ending injury.

“Megan is doing well,” Warren said. “It is really, really good to have her back.  She just brings a calming presence to our team offensively and defensively.” 

Nicole Kroeger and Fresno State transfer Kristina Cavey added 10 points each to round off the 95-point offensive performance.

Saturday night saw a marquee battle in Wichita, Kan., between the Shockers and Panthers.  UNI came back from a seven-point halftime deficit, edging out the Shockers 37-22 in the second half for a 61-50 road win.

Rucker had another strong showing with 18 points for double figures in 18 of her last 20 games. Maahs added 11 points and seven rebounds, while Finley poured in 11 points with five rebounds.

“I think the potential of this team is unlimited,” senior guard Rose Simon-Ressler said.  “Every day we see new people stepping up in different areas, whether it’s offense or defense.  I think that some of the experience that we got last year because of the injuries is really going to help this year.” 

Up next, the Panthers will travel south for a matchup against the University of Missouri on Wednesday before returning to the McLeod Center on Sunday to face the Iowa Hawkeyes.