National Basketball Association
Northern Iowa 71, Wyoming 54
When: 1:40 PM ET, Friday, March 20, 2015
Where: KeyArena, Seattle, Washington
Officials:
# Mike Eades, # Tim Gattis, # Brent Hampton
Attendance:
14509
By SportsDirect Inc.
Northern Iowa 71, Wyoming 54: Reserve Paul
Jesperson scored 16 points as the Panthers received a huge boost from their bench in
posting a second-round NCAA Tournament victory in Seattle.
Seth Tuttle added 14 points and a game-high nine
rebounds for fifth-seeded Northern Iowa (31-3), which set the program’s
single-season record for wins and advanced to meet fourth-seeded Louisville in Sunday's round of 32. The
Panthers, who also received 13 points from Nate Buss and 10 apiece from Deon
Mitchell and Wes Washpun, hit 9-of-18 3-pointers and enjoyed a 29-22 rebounding
advantage as their reserves outscored Wyoming’s 41-2.
Larry Nance Jr. had 16 points and seven rebounds to
pace the 12th-seeded Cowboys (25-10), the Mountain West tournament
champions who were making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2002. Charles
Hankerson Jr. added 15 points on 5-of-8 3-point shooting and Derek Cooke Jr.
had nine points for Wyoming, which had 12 turnovers and was outscored 16-3 at the
free-throw line.
Northern Iowa led 35-24 at intermission and
scored the first eight points of the second half as part of an 11-1 run to go
up 46-25 with 15:20 to go before Nance, who had managed only two free throws
in the first 25 minutes, scored 12 in
an 18-4 run that cut the deficit to 50-43 with 10:35 left. That was as close as the Cowboys would get as the Panthers answered with a 12-5
run to push their lead to 62-48 with 4:54 to play, and the margin never fell below
12 points from there.
Wyoming hit its first four shots to take an early
9-8 lead, but Jesperson's 3-pointer highlighted a 10-0 run that gave Northern
Iowa a lead that it would never relinquish. The Panthers took their largest
lead of the opening 20 minutes at 35-21 with 34 seconds remaining, but
Hankerson beat the buzzer with his fourth 3-pointer of the half to pull the
Cowboys within 11 at the break.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Northern Iowa improved to 16-3 in
road/neutral-site games this season, trailing only Villanova (17) for the most road/neutral
victories nationally. … Wyoming finished 4-10 when scoring fewer
than 60 points. … Tuttle started his 135th game – every contest in
his four-year career at Northern Iowa – to tie Johnny Moran atop the school’s all-time
list.
Top Game Performances
| Wyoming |
|
Northern Iowa |
|
Larry Nance Jr. 16 |
Scoring |
Paul Jesperson 16 |
|
Josh Adams 6 |
Assists |
Deon Mitchell 3 |
|
Larry Nance Jr. 7 |
Rebounds |
Seth Tuttle 9 |
|
Larry Nance Jr. 2 |
Free Throws Made |
Seth Tuttle 5 |
|
Josh Adams 1 |
Steals |
Seth Tuttle 3 |
|
Larry Nance Jr. 2 |
Blocks |
Nate Buss 1 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Wyoming
|
54 |
45.7 |
9-22 |
3-9 |
14 |
18 |
3 |
2 |
12 |
| Northern Iowa
|
71 |
46.0 |
9-18 |
16-18 |
10 |
27 |
1 |
9 |
7 |
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