UNI comeback falls short in 59-54 loss to Indiana State

An up-and-down rollercoaster season continues for the University of Northern Iowa men's basketball team. The Panthers fell behind the Sycamores by 14 points midway through the first half but cut the deficit to three points with 6:34 remaining in regulation. However, UNI got no closer as they suffered a 59-54 loss in Terre Haute, Ind. The Panthers are now 1-4 on the road in Missouri Valley Conference play.

UNI (14-8, 4-6 MVC) has shown throughout conference play that they can hang with any team in the league. The Panthers held large leads against No. 14-ranked Creighton University and Wichita State University before falling by three points to the top two teams. However, UNI has also shown that they can lose to any team in the league with losses to both Bradley University and Indiana State. Despite the loss, the Panthers are still just one game out of a tie for third place in the MVC.

The Sycamores (12-9, 3-7 MVC) started the game off with a 23-9 run over the opening 12 minutes to take their largest lead of the game at 14 points. From that point on, the Panthers tried to play catch-up. UNI cut the ISU lead to just seven points at the break in large part because of the performance of freshman center Seth Tuttle.

Tuttle scored a career-high 20 points, with eight of those coming in the final four minutes of the first half.  Wednesday night marked Tuttle's third straight double digit scoring performance. He also collected six rebounds on the night.

The Panthers slowly kept chipping away at the Sycamore lead and pulled to within 49-46 with 6:34 remaining in the game. UNI looked to cut the ISU lead to two points with 1:21 left, but a Marc Sonnen lay-up was waved off due to an offensive charge. The Panthers got no closer than four points the rest of the way.

Joining Tuttle in double-digit scoring was senior guard Johnny Moran, who chipped in with 11 points. Junior forward Jake Koch collected a team-high eight rebounds.

UNI returns to action Saturday in Springfield, Mo., when they take on the Missouri State University Bears (12-10, 5-5 MVC). The Panthers defeated the Bears 61-60 in Cedar Falls back on Jan. 13. The last three meetings between the two schools have been decided by one point.