Northern Iowa Panthers at Evansville Purple Aces

Evansville rallies from 16 down to upset No. 23 Northern Iowa

D.J. Balentine scored 17 points and Evansville came all the way back to beat No. 23 Northern Iowa 52-49 on Thursday.

"We felt fortunate to only be down 10 at half, to be honest," Evansville coach Marty Simmons said. "Northern Iowa is a great defensive team. But I thought we had a little better movement, and a little bit better execution in the second half. I thought our guys showed some grit."

Egidijus Mockevicius added 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Purple Aces (11-2, 1-0 Missouri Valley Conference). Jaylon Brown made four free throws in the last 7 seconds to seal it.

Seth Tuttle led UNI with 18 points, but fouled out in the final minute. Nate Buss added nine for the Panthers (11-2, 0-1).

Jeremy Morgan's desperation 3-pointer in the final second sailed well to the left.

"They stepped up their game in the second half and we were not able to handle it," Tuttle said. "We never really got a run going in the second half. That credit goes to them, I guess. We had a couple of opportunities, but we didn't execute."

For one half, Northern Iowa's swarming defense completely frustrated Evansville, holding the Purple Aces to 20 points as the Panthers built a lead as large as 16.

The second half was a different story.

UNI led 28-12 late in the first following Tuttle's one-handed shot as he drifted across the lane, but Evansville pulled to 30-20 at halftime. The Purple Aces shot 7 of 23 from the field in the first period, including 0 of 7 on 3-pointers.

"We did most of what we set out to do in that first half," Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. "But I would like to have had a little bit better finish to that first half. But at the start of the second half it did not feel like we were getting great possessions offensively. In the last 10 or 12 minutes we had good possessions, but we did not get points from them."

Evansville never did find its shooting touch, ending the game at 32.7 percent (16 for 49), but used offensive rebounding to get numerous second chances. The Purple Aces finished with 14 offensive rebounds to three for UNI.

"We did not rebound well enough to finish it off," Jacobson said. "And if we had finished off possessions in the second half, we were going to win."

Evansville pulled to 36-35 with 10:57 to play on Duane Gibson's bank shot, and it was back and forth from there. Tuttle's 3-pointer with 6:12 left briefly pushed the Panthers' lead back to 41-35, but Evansville hit 13 of 14 free throws in the second half to make up the difference.

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TIP-INS

Northern Iowa: UNI's bench came in as the eighth-leading scoring group in the country. Despite the loss, the Panthers' reserves outscored the Purple Aces' bench 22-8.

Evansville: Balentine had scored at least 20 points in eight straight games.

UP NEXT

Northern Iowa plays at home against Loyola on Sunday.

Evansville plays at Indiana State on Sunday.

How can I watch Northern Iowa vs. Evansville?

• TV Channel: Northern Iowa at Evansville 2021 College Basketball, week 8, is broadcasted on ESPN3.
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