The Northern Iowa men’s basketball team welcomed the Belmont Bruins last Tuesday for their conference opener. 

The Panthers got off to a rough start on defense, allowing two Bruins three-point baskets within the first four minutes. The Bruins continued their run with two layups, extending their lead to 10-2, three minutes into the game. 

The Bruins continued their hot start driving in for a layup and draining another three-pointer to extend their lead to 17-4. 

With just under 15 minutes in the first half, Cole Henry started a scoring stretch for the Panthers getting to the foul line and making two free throws. After a stop on defense, Michael Duax drove down the lane for an and-one layup to cut the lead to 17-9 Bruins. 

After, the Bruins responded on offense to make it 19-9, a two minute scoring drought occurred. The Bruins snapped that streak with a three-pointer to make it 22-9 with a little over 10 minutes to go in the quarter. 

The Panther offense responded right away as freshman Kyle Pock hit a three-point basket to cut the lead to 22-12 Bruins. On their next possessions, Panthers and Bruins exchanged three-pointers to make the score 25-15. 

Just under the 10 minute mark in the half, the Panther offense continued to find its groove as Henry and Trey Campbell both made two point baskets. The Belmont offense kept pace with three baskets of their own to extend their lead to 31-19. 

With just under seven minutes to go in the first half, the Panthers trailed the Bruins 33-22. They proceeded to go on a 9-0 run on offense with baskets by Campbell, Nate Heise, and Tytan Anderson to cut the lead to 33-29 with under four minutes to go in the half. 

The Belmont offense finished strong to end the half with a three point basket and a layup. The Panthers trailed 37-31 going into halftime. 

To start the second half, the Belmont offense and Panthers guard Bowen Born exchanged jump shots to make the score 39-33. 

After the Panther defense allowed a Bruin layup, Heise found Jacob Hutson under the basket for a slam dunk to cut the lead to eight. On the next offensive possession, Heise drew a foul and made two free throws to cut the lead to six. Anderson followed that up with a layup down the lane to cut the lead to 43-39 Bruins with just under 17minutes to go in the second half.

The Bruins offense silenced the Panther run with a three-point basket, followed by a layup to extend the lead to seven. They followed that up with a 7-0 offensive run to extend their lead to 55-41 with just under 15 minutes to go in the second half. 

Pock stopped the Bruin run with a three-point basket to cut the lead to eleven. The Bruins offense responded with a 9-0 scoring run to extend their lead to 64-44 with just under 13 minutes to play in the game. 

Anderson silenced the run on offense with a layup, but the Bruin offense responded right back with a three-point shot. Anderson went down and made another layup to cut the lead to 69-48. 

Soon after the Bruins went on a 7-0 run, most of their points coming from the free-throw line. The lead was 76-51 in favor of the Bruins. 

Duax put a stop to the Bruins run with a three point basket. Soon after, on back to back offensive possessions he made a jump shot and a slam dunk to cut the lead to 20. 

With just under four minutes to go in the game, Drew Daniel and Landon Wolf drove down the lane for layups to cut the lead to seventeen. Belmont finished the game on an 11-9 run, making the final score 90-70 in favor of the Bruins. 

The Panthers fall to 2-5 on the year and 0-1 in conference play.