U.N.I. won its first Missouri Valley Conference road game with a 46-44 victory at winless Illinois State. Panther coach Ben Jacobsen says it was hard fought and they had to come up with some good defensive stops to hold them. He says they made mistakes defensively in previous games and did not do that in this game.

U.N.I. outscored the Redbirds 9-2 in the final six minutes to even their Valley mark at 3-3. He says it was a hard fought game and they started with some good looks, but didn’t get shots to fall. He says they got down early because of that, but then had a nice stretch to get the lead back.

Jake Koch led UNI with 13 points as the Panthers improve to 12-6 overall.