The Northern Iowa men’s basketball team ended their season with a 73-63 against SMU last week. The Panthers accepted a bid into the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) as an No. 8 seed. It was one last opportunity for seniors Tytan Anderson, Jacob Hutson and Cael Schmitt to play in a collegiate game. 

Anderson jump-started the Panthers offense with a 3-point basket. Max Weisbrod followed it up with another three to make it 6-2 UNI. Towards the middle of the half, Schmitt started to heat up behind the 3-point line, hitting two to extend the Panther lead to 18-12. 

After the Mustangs took a 23-20 lead, Trey Campbell hit a huge three to tie the game back up. The Panthers capped the first half scoring off with three made free throws and a Will Hornseth dunk to trail 33-32 at the break. 

Ben Schweiger regained the lead for the Panthers after the break with a layup, followed by five consecutive points by Hutson to take the lead back at 39-35. Schweiger continued his hot start to the second half connecting on back-to-back jump shots. After an Anderson layup, the Panthers went on a two-minute scoreless streak before a Hutson dunk. 

With the game tied at 52 a piece, the Mustangs went on a 59-52 run. With under five minutes to play, the Panthers surged back, courtesy of consecutive 3-pointers from Campbell, which cut the lead to three points. 

UNI came up just short, only scoring three points the rest of the game with a final score of 73-63. The Panthers finish the 2024-2025 season with a record of 20-13. Northern Iowa falls to 2-3 all-time in NIT games in program history. Anderson ended his career at Northern Iowa finishing 12th all-time in scoring program history with 1,383 points. Hutson finished his career with 940 points and 676 points in his two seasons as a Panther.