By Joel Wauters/UNI Athletics
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The UNI men’s basketball team will close out the home portion of its 2024-25 regular season on Wednesday night as it hosts the UIC Flames in Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) action.
Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT with live coverage available on the MVC TV Network. Fans can also catch the radio call of the game with J.W. Cox and Kevin Boyle on the Panther Sports Radio Network.
Tickets can be purchased online through the UNI Ticket Office, by calling 319-273-4849 or through email at tickets@uni.edu.
Northern Iowa holds a narrow 14-12 lead in the all-time series and will look for the regular season sweep of UIC after scoring an impressive 83-56 road win in Chicago in December to open league play. UNI boasts an impressive 13-3 home record this year, second only to Drake.
The Panthers can inch closer to securing the two-seed for next week’s MVC Tournament in St. Louis with a victory, currently sitting in a tie with Bradley for second place. UNI is guaranteed a top-three seed and first-round bye with two games to play following a heartbreaking 64-58 overtime loss to Drake on Sunday afternoon.
In the battle between the top teams, both teams were held to under 40% shooting in a defensive struggle. After a late game three-point basket by the Panthers, free throws by the Bulldogs with under one second to play would force overtime, where Drake outscored UNI by a 9-3 margin in the Panthers’ first overtime game of the season.
Tytan Anderson finished the afternoon with a team-high 21 points, plus six rebounds and a pair of steals in the loss, with Jacob Hutson tallying 14 points and nine rebounds. Ben Schwieger posted 12 points, seven boards, while Trey Campbell scored ten points and dished out a team-leading three assists, along with two steals and a block.
Northern Iowa continues to maintain a hot shooting hand this season, ranking seventh in all of Division I with a 49.2% shooting clip, shooting over 50% in 13 of its 29 games this year. The Panthers are also on pace for the sixth-highest team shooting percentage in program history and highest mark this century.
Anderson, the MVC’s leader in made free throws (132) and attempts (186) who also looks to continue climbing the program’s top-ten all-time steals list, leads UNI with 15.6 points per game and a team-high 6.6 rebounds a game on 58.3% shooting. Anderson is also seventh all-time in program history in career rebounds (778) and tied for sixth in games played with the Panthers (135).
Hutson has notched 11.7 points and 4.5 rebounds, while Campbell has posted 11.6 points and a team-high 86 assists. Schwieger has put up 10.1 points and 4.9 boards per game as a starter in the Panther lineup in the last 21 contests. Will Hornseth, meanwhile,is shooting at a high percentage in his freshman season, posting a 69.2% clip on 63-of-91 shooting, currently on pace to set a new single-season field goal percentage record.
From beyond the arc, Cael Schmitt, who has appeared in 11 games since his UNI and Division I debut at Southern Illinois last month, has steadily increased his minutes on the floor each game while shooting eight-for-27 from range. Max Weisbrod has also been a spark for Northern Iowa’s three-point shooting having started the last seven games and trailing on Campbell for the team lead with 39 made three pointers on 39%.
SCOUTING UIC
The Flames, who were picked last in this year’s MVC preseason poll, have gone 12-9 overall and 9-8 in league play since their early season loss to UNI, having defeated both Drake on New Year’s Day at home and Bradley on the road. UIC can finish anywhere between the five and nine-seed at Arch Madness heading into the final week of the regular season.
Javon Jackson led UIC with 14 points against UNI back on Dec. 4 in a game where the Flames shot 32.2% from the field on 59 shot attempts and five-of-23 from three-point range.
UIC leads the MVC in bench scoring with 25.9 points a game and is the conference’s leading rebounding squad with 36.2 boards per game, plus a league-best 10.7 offensive rebounds a game. Modestas Kancleris leads the Flames in scoring with 15.5 points a game, while Tyem Freeman has notched 13 points per game. Ahmad Henderson II ranks seventh in the nation with a 91.7% shooting clip at the free throw line, as Sasa Ciani is the MVC’s leader in double-doubles (7) and rebounds per game (7.7).