Many believed the Northern Iowa Panthers should have been seeded higher than a five seed and today they didn’t disappoint. The Missouri Valley Conference champion Panthers showed that they weren’t just a great defensive team. The Panthers were facing the Mountain West Conference champion Wyoming Cowboys who were the eighth ranked defensive team in the nation coming into the game. The Panthers were able to dominate on both sides of the court, winning 71-54.
Northern Iowa got off to a great start leading 18-9 before the twelve minute mark of the first half. They got to that lead with a 10-0 run with all ten points coming from players who came off the bench. Wyoming found it extremely difficult to score on the Panthers fourth ranked defense in the first half. They were only able to score 24 points in the first half, half of which came from their fifth leading scorer for the season, Charles Hankerson Jr. who scored twelve points on four 3-pointers. Seth Tuttle led the Panthers in scoring in the first half with ten points. Wyoming’s leading scorer for the season, Larry Nance Jr., had just one point at that time.
Northern Iowa got off to another hot start in the second half, scoring eight straight points to bring their lead to 43-24. But this time Wyoming responded with a run of their own. Larry Nance scored the first thirteen points of the half for Wyoming and Charles Hankerson’s fifth 3-pointer of the game capped a 14-0 run that trimmed Northern Iowa’s lead to 50-43. That is as close as Wyoming would get.
The final ten minutes of the contest would be all Northern Iowa, specifically their bench. In the final 10:15, the Panthers outscored Wyoming 21 to 11. Nineteen of those points came from Northern Iowa’s bench players, Paul Jesperson, Nate Buss, and Wes Washpun.
Northern Iowa got a big game from Missouri Valley Player of the Year, Seth Tuttle. He scored fourteen points and grabbed nine rebounds. They also got double-digit points from Deon Mitchell, Nate Buss, Paul Jesperson, and Wes Washpun. The top four scorers for Wyoming were their four starting seniors. Larry Nance Jr. finished his collegiate playing career with sixteen points, seven rebounds, and two blocks. Charles Hankerson Jr. more than doubled his season average of 6.6 points per game, scoring fifteen points on 5-8 shooting from three-point range. Derek Cooke Jr. added nine points and Riley Grabau had eight points. The Panthers bench outscored the Wyoming bench, 41-2.
The fifth seeded Panthers will face the winner of the Louisville-UC Irvine matchup on Sunday at KeyArena. Wyoming’s season has come to an end but they have nothing to be ashamed of, winning the competitive Mountain West Conference.