Matt Bohannon

Matt Bohannon

The Northern Iowa Panthers take a five-game winning streak on the road in Missouri Valley Conference play to tangle with 25th ranked Wichita State.

Just a couple of weeks after sitting at 2-6 in the Valley the Panthers are now 7-6 and just two games behind second place Illinois State.

“We knew how close we were”, said UNI senior guard Matt Bohannon. “It took a lot more pride on the defensive end and we had to step up.”

Wichita State is running away with the Valley regular season crown and takes a 12-1 record into Saturday’s game. The Shockers clobbered the Panthers 74-55 last month in the McLeod Center.

“All you can do at our point is just keep stringing them together and just focus on the game at hand. We need to go there with a lot of confidence”

UNI is 15-11 overall. Tip off in Koch Arena on Saturday is 11:00 a.m. and the game will be carried by ESPN2.