After opening the Missouri Valley Conference race with a loss at home the UNI Panthers caught fire last week. The Panthers followed up a convincing win at Southern Illinois with a lopsided 78-54 win over Wichita State in Cedar Falls. The game included a 32-5 UNI run midway through the game as they improved to 2-1 in the Valley.
UNI coach Ben Jacobsen says they were really good at Southern in the first half and played a "really good" 20 minutes at both ends of the floor against Wichita State. Jacobsen says the Panthers got it turned around by playing harder on the defensive end. He says they’ve been stressing defense from the first day and have made improvements, but have work to do on defense.
Jacobsen says the Panthers are playing better as they get more experience. He says the team now has the 10 guys in the rotation that have played 14 games together, and they don’t have a lot of game experiences as a group. But now he says they are gaining some of that experience that will allow them to get better.
The Panthers will try to build on their winning streak Tuesday night with a visit to Creighton.