The UNI basketball team will look to get back on track tonight as the Panthers visit Evansville. UNI suffered their first conference loss of the season on Sunday when they lost to Wichita State.
Despite a poor offensive performance, Jacobson says he was pleased to see his team play well enough to win. “Neither team shot the ball well, but to be on the road against a quality team like Wichita and not have a great offensive day and still be in a position to be on the line down 7 with a chance to win that basketball game, tells us that we did some good things,” Jacobson says.
After seeing a bit of progress the prior two games, the Panthers’ outside shooting took a nosedive against the Shockers, as UNI made just five of 24 shots from behind the arc. Jacobson says he’s confident the outside shooting will come around, so long as his players keep working at it. “That’s the only thing I ask of our guys, I believe that we’ve got really good shooters. I’ve got a ton of confidence in our guys, they know that,” Jacobson says.
Evansville has turned over some of their personnel since last season, but Jacobson says their scheme has not changed with a younger team. He says they work hard and still play tough man-to-man defense. Jacobson says that D.J. Balentine has taken over the leading scorer duties for the Purple Aces as he opened up the year with three 29-point games. Tonight’s game is scheduled to tip off at 7:00 in Evansville.
By Jesse Gavin, KCNZ, Cedar Falls