Northern Iowa downed Bradley in Missouri Valley Conference play in Cedar Falls. The Panthers opened the second half outscoring Bradley 17-4 and went on to win 64-55 in Cedar Falls. Anthony James led the Panthers with 19 points.
It was senior night and they honored their single senior Johnny Moran, who had 12 points, including a three with his first bucket that gave him 1,000 points for his career. Marc Sonnen also had 12 points.
U.N.I. is now 18-12 and 8-9 in the Missouri Valley.
Drake downed Southern Illinois last night 78-63 in their final regular season home game which ensured the Bulldogs of a winning season. Junior forward Ben Simons returned for the first time after missing five games with mono.
On his post-game show on KRNT radio, coach Mark Phelps said it was not surprising to see Simons go 25 minutes, as he says Simons has always been in good shape and it was natural conditioning that allowed him to play.
The Bulldogs used tough defense to hold the Salukis to just over 34-percent shooting. “We’re doing a good job, I thought they missed some open ones, part of it was our defense, part of it was them missing some shots. On the other side, we need to rebound the ball a little bit better,” Phelps says.
Simons was just glad to get back in action. “it’s been hard, watching, going through practice and not being able to do anything,” he said. Simons scored 14 points and redshirt-freshman Jeremy Jeffers added 11.
Drake is 16-13 overall and moved to 9-8 and a tied for third place in the Missouri Valley with the win.
Royce White
Iowa State shrugged off a slow start and went on to a 72-54 win over Texas Tech in Ames Wednesday. The win is the 20th on the season for the Cyclones. Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg got his team going after they trailed 32-28 going into halftime.
“I was really proud of our guys in the second half, they really responded to a really good toungue lashing at halftime,” Hoiberg said.
Scott Christopherson led four Cyclones in double figures with 17. “We were just able to shore things up on the defensive end in the second half and that was really key,” he said.
Melvin Ejim also had 17 points, while Royce White had 13 points and Chris Allen 12. Iowa State is 20-8 overall and 10-5 in the Big 12.
Elwin Huffman, KOEL, Oelwein contributed to this story.