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Men's Basketball
UNI Rallies to Defeat Evansville, 71-60
Dec. 31, 2005
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Cedar Falls, Iowa - Five players scored in double figures as the University of Northern Iowa men's basketball team posted a 71-60 win over Evansville this afternoon at the UNI-Dome. UNI improves to 11-2 overall, 1-1 in Missouri Valley Conference play, while Evansville falls to 4-6, 0-2 in conference. Senior Erik Crawford (Oakdale, Minn.) led the way with 17 points, and added five assists. Fellow senior guard Ben Jacobson (Sioux City, Iowa) added 13 points, six assists and two steals. Also in double-figure scoring for UNI were Eric Coleman (Maplewood, Minn.) with 12, John Little (Peoria, Ill.) with a season-high 11 off the bench, and Grant Stout (New Sharon, Iowa) with 10. Coleman posted his second double-double of the season, grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds. Evansville jumped out to an early lead, going on a 15-0 run to take a 20-5 lead with 11:11 left in the first half, and maintained its double-digit advantage for much of the first half. After a three-pointer by UNI's Michael Williams (Topeka, Kan.) cut Evansville's lead to 28-20 with 4:34 left, the Aces went on a 13-5 run to open a 41-25 cushion with less than a minute to play. Jacobson nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to give UNI some momentum heading into the locker room, but Evansville still held a 41-28 edge. Evansville was red-hot from the field in the first half, connecting on 67 percent of its attempts (14-for-21), including 8-for-13 from three-point range. Purple Aces guard Jason Holsinger scored 18 of his 23 points in the first half with four threes. UNI, conversely, hit on just 31 percent of its shots (9-for-29) in the opening 20 minutes.
With Evansville holding a 45-32 lead early in the second half, UNI began its run - what turned out to be a 30-8 stretch over the next 10 minutes to give the Panthers a 62-53 advantage. Little, Crawford and Jacobson each hit two three-pointers during that run. The Panthers built their lead to as many as 15 points (69-54) with under two minutes remaining, and outscored the Purple Aces 43-19 in the second half. UNI hit 56 percent of its shots after halftime (6-of-12 on three-pointers), while holding Evansville to 33 percent shooting, and just 1-of-7 on threes. Jacobson also became UNI's career leader in three-pointers, as he now has 172. He passed Nick Nurse (170, 1986-89) with his second trey of the game, with 12:50 left in the second half. UNI hosts Illinois State on Monday, Jan. 2, with tipoff from the UNI-Dome set for 7:05 p.m. |
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