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Men's Basketball
Panthers Topple Shockers In Wichita
Dec. 30, 2006
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -The inside duo of Grant Stout and Eric Coleman took over late in the game and Northern Iowa handed No. 16 Wichita State its third straight loss, 63-59 on Saturday night. Stout scored 11 of his 17 points in the final 10 minutes for the Panthers, who have beaten the Shockers three straight times and seven out of nine. The Panthers (11-2, 2-0 Missouri Valley Conference) trailed most of the way, but an 18-4 second-half run got them back into the game. Stout's turnaround jumper with 1:34 to go gave Northern Iowa a 58-53 lead, and after the Shockers cut it to 62-59, Coleman drained a free throw with two seconds left to put the game away. Coleman finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds for Northern Iowa, his seventh double-double in the last eight games. Brooks McKowen added 13 points, including several clutch free throws in the final minutes. Kyle Wilson scored 18 points to lead Wichita State (9-3, 0-1), which climbed to as high as No. 8 in the poll before close losses to New Mexico and Southern California in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic. All three of the Shockers' losses have been by four points or less. Wichita State led 34-26 with just under 16 minutes to go before Adam Viet nailed two open 3-pointers. That triggered the Panthers' big run, and by the time Stout scored on a short jumper, Northern Iowa had taken a 44-38 lead. The Shockers twice got within three points, but each time Northern Iowa's swarming defense caused a critical turnover or pulled down a big rebound. Wilson had a chance to tie the game with eight seconds to go, but threw up an off-balanced 3-pointer that missed everything. Phillip Thomasson scored 10 of his 12 points in the first half for Wichita State, which is 32-6 at home since 2004 with three of the losses to Northern Iowa. Matt Braeuer had 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting.
The Shockers appeared to be shrugging off their sluggish Las Vegas performance early. They scored the first five points and never trailed in the first half, a stingy defense in the halfcourt holding the Panthers to 8-of-29 shooting. Northern Iowa got within 16-15 with just over eight minutes left in the half, but Thomasson quickly scored six points to push the lead to 22-17. Sean Ogirri gave the Shockers their biggest lead of the half, 25-19, with a fallaway 3 with under a minute to go. But McKowen converted a three-point play at the other end to make it 25-22. |
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