National Basketball Association
Wichita St. 74, Northern Iowa 60
When: 2:00 PM ET, Saturday, February 28, 2015
Where: Charles Koch Arena, Wichita, Kansas
Officials:
# Paul Janssen, # Terry Oglesby, # Bert Smith
Attendance:
10506
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 11 Wichita State 74, No. 10 Northern Iowa 60: Ron Baker scored 17 points to lead five starters in double figures and added seven assists as the Shockers withstood a second-half rally by the visiting Panthers to claim their second consecutive Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title.
Fred VanVleet had 13 points, six rebounds and seven assists while Tekele Cotton had 11 points and eight boards for Wichita State (27-3, 17-1 MVC), which has won the league title in three of the last four seasons. Darius Carter and Evan Wessel added 11 points apiece as the Shockers shot 49.1 percent and avenged a 70-54 loss to the Panthers on Jan. 31.
Seth Tuttle led Northern Iowa (27-3, 16-2) with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists while Matt Bohannon chipped in nine points on three 3-pointers. Paul Jesperson and Wes Washpun scored eight points apiece for the Panthers, who were outrebounded 32-26 and saw their school-record 16-game winning streak come to an end.
Northern Iowa trailed at the half for the first time in league play after Wichita State closed on a 22-6 run to move ahead 38-26 at the break. Shaquille Morris threw down a dunk to extend the lead to 51-33 with just over 15 minutes left before Jesperson scored eight points during a 16-2 run to help the Panthers cut the deficit to 53-49 with just over nine minutes remaining.
Wessel scored eight of his 11 points in the second half and drilled back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Shockers ahead 63-55 with 5 ½ minutes left. Northern Iowa, which came in ranked fourth nationally in scoring defense at 53.8 points, trailed by 12 after Cotton threw down a breakaway windmill dunk with 1:12 remaining.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Tuttle, who scored 29 points in last month’s win over the Shockers, was held to six points in the first half. … Wessel, Baker and VanVleet made three 3-pointers apiece for Wichita State, which has won 47 straight home games when scoring at least 70 points. … Wichita State has won seven of the last nine meetings against the Panthers.
Top Game Performances
| Northern Iowa |
|
Wichita St. |
|
Seth Tuttle 16 |
Scoring |
Ron Baker 17 |
|
Seth Tuttle 6 |
Assists |
Ron Baker 7 |
|
Seth Tuttle 7 |
Rebounds |
Tekele Cotton 8 |
|
Seth Tuttle 4 |
Free Throws Made |
Darius Carter 3 |
|
N/A |
Steals |
Tekele Cotton 3 |
|
Jeremy Morgan 1 |
Blocks |
Darius Carter 1 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Northern Iowa
|
60 |
47.8 |
8-20 |
8-11 |
8 |
22 |
2 |
0 |
10 |
| Wichita St.
|
74 |
49.1 |
11-24 |
7-10 |
19 |
28 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
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