Ben Jacobson

Ben Jacobson

The Northern Iowa Panthers have climbed into fifth place in the Missouri Valley Conference race and they will to make it seven wins in a row on Wednesday night when they visit Loyola. UNI is coming off a 53-50 win at 25th ranked Wichita State.

“From a players standpoint you could just see a different look after the Wichita State game because they knew they had to earn it”, said Panther coach Ben Jacobson. “It wasn’t one of those where we shot 65 percent and everything went our way. It had to be earned.”

Northern Iowa is 8-6 in the Valley and lost the first game against the Ramblers last month in Cedar Falls.  The Panthers are 16-11 overall. Loyola is 5-9 in the Valley and 12-14 overall.