UNI’s home court.
The 11th ranked UNI Panthers have a showdown looming with Wichita State as they enter the final week of the regular season.
The Panthers are 26-2 overall and 15-1 in Missouri Valley play heading into Wednesday’s home finale with Evansville. A victory over the Aces will set up a winner take all game at Wichita State which will include a visit from ESPN’s Gameday show.
“I think it’s great, I think it’s great for our program, great for our league,” UNI coach Ben Jacobson says. Jacobson says the Panthers are not satisfied with what they have already accomplished. “Having five seniors, having three juniors, that helps a lot. These guys have wanted this for a long time,” Jacobson says. “They want to keep going. There isn’t a point where they’ve reached or a game that we’ve played where they’ve felt ‘okay that’s enough.’ They want to keep playing and they want to keep getting better and I think that’s helping a lot too.”
Senior Seth Tuttle says they key has been defense and that won’t change. “We’re helping each other. If someone gets beat slightly, there’s someone else there rotating…we’re covering up for each other. Basically our defense right now is playing like one unit, everyone just flying all over the place covering up for each other. And that makes it extremely had to score on.”
By Elwin Huffman, KOEL, Oelwein