Over the winter break while most of the students on campus were at home, the UNI men’s basketball team continued to play. They came into the break with a 4-7 record, certainly not where they wanted to be, but they worked to improve their record over the break. Over the span of six games, they lost just one, making their record 9-8 as the spring semester begins.
They started things off great when they dominated in the first two games. The first game was against Alcorn State in the McLeod Center on Dec. 17. The Panthers did not mess around in the first half, scoring 62 points to Alcorn States 41. While things slowed down just a little bit in the second half for the Panthers, they still managed to score 100 points in a dominating 100-82 victory. The Panthers made 14 3-pointers on the night, five of which came from leading scorer Nate Heise, who finished with 24 points. In a game earlier that week, Heise had scored 25 points, and his elite play for the week earned him the MVC Player of the Week. The next game for the Panthers was against Northern Illinois in Dekalb, Illinois on Dec. 21. They jumped out to a great start once again, and had a 17-point lead going into the half. They were able to stay steadily ahead of the Huskies in the second half, and won by a score of 76-63.
The Panthers had a nice break over the holiday season, and then were back to work on Jan. 3 when they traveled to play against Missouri State. The Panthers were 0-2 in conference play, so it was a big game for them. The Panthers started the game out hot, and it looked like it might be a similar story to the other games up to this point, but the Bears were not going to be beaten so easily. They cut back on the margin before the half, and UNI held only a four-point lead, 33-29. In the second half the game remained tight. With 12 seconds left, Heise made a free throw to put the Panthers up two, but then missed the one to go up three. The Bears had a chance to win the game, but missed an open 3-pointer at the buzzer, allowing the Panthers to sneak out with the win.
The Panthers played back at home the next two games, facing off against Indiana State on Jan. 7, and then against UIC on Jan. 10. The game against Indiana State marked the first and only loss for the Panthers over the break. They dug themselves into a hole in the first half, being down 44-27 at halftime, and it was too much to overcome in the second half. While outsourcing the Sycamores in the second half, they still took the loss 77-66. Despite the loss Bowen Born led all scorers with an impressive 27-point outing. The Panthers bounced back against UIC. This was a close game the whole way through. The Panthers held a slim 35-32 lead at halftime, but were able to hold the Flames to under 30 points in the second half, and ended up winning the game 67-59.
The last game of the break was at Murray State on Jan. 14. Scoring was hard to come by in the first half, as neither team was able to get to 30 points. It was the Racers that had a two-point lead with the score at 27-25. The offense improved for both teams in the second half, but more so for the Panthers, particularly for Heise. He led the way with 16 points in the half, as the Panthers scored 45 total. The Racers could not quite keep up, as UNI won the final game of break 70-60.
The Panthers performance over the break has moved their record to 9-8 overall and 3-3 in conference play. They will be back on the court Wednesday, Jan. 17, when they travel to Tennessee to play Belmont.
