?

The University of Northern Iowa women’s basketball team was stifled by Wichita State’s defense on Friday, falling to the shockers 70-52 after scoring 12 points in the first half.

“There is a reason they are undefeated in conference play,” said UNI women’s basketball coach Tanya Warren. 

Wichita State set the tone early in the game with its pressure defense, not allowing the Panthers to get into much of a rhythm. 

The Panthers were held to a mere shooting percentage of 13, and forced into turning the ball over 9 times in the opening stanza.  

“I thought we came out extremely flat, very intimidated," described Warren of her team’s start. 

The Shockers started the game with an 11-2 run before UNI rattled off a little run of their own to get within four, but it never got much closer than that. 

Wichita State used an 18-2 run to blow the game open in the later part of the first half.   

Wichita State’s defense wasn’t the only dominating aspect of their game; the Shockers shot at 60 percent. 

The second half went quite a bit better for the Panthers, as they were able to shoot a better percentage, at 44.8 percent.  They showed quite a bit of promise when they hit six shots from behind the 3-point line.  

“We really needed that momentum in the second half,” said UNI sophomore guard Madison Weekly.  “This game is behind us now and we have to focus for Sunday on a very good Missouri State team.”

The Panther attack was led by a relentless and strong performance by Weekly.  She scored a team-high 12 points, nine of which came from deep.  Brooke Brown and Stephanie Davison both pitched in eight points apiece.

The loss dropped UNI to 6-2 in conference play with both losses coming to the top teams in the Missouri Valley Conference.