No Red Ink Today

(St. Louis, MO) – There are no red lines for the Missouri Valley Conference. When teams in your bracket lose a game, a little red line runs through your selection. Wichita State and Northern Iowa avoided the red line on Friday.

UNI (31-3) won easily and the Shockers (29-4) had to come from behind to edge Indiana. MVC teams are 5-0 this postseason, with the two most important wins coming Friday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Panthers Get Up Early

The Panthers won it 71-54 as five players scored double figures, led by Paul Jesperson’s 16. UNI led by 11 at the half and cruised to the win. Head Coach Ben Jacobson is now 3-0 in second round NCAA games.

Others in double figures were Seth Tuttle with 14, 13 for Nate Buss and 10 each for Deon Mitchell and Wes Washpun.

Northern Iowa played their patented defense, holding Wyoming to 54 points. Jacobson’s team yields less than 56 points per game, but pushed the pace a little bit more than usual. UNI buried nine three pointers, led by Jesperson’s 3 of 6 performance.

Shockers Fight Through

Wichita State did not look like themselves in the first half of their game with Indiana. They trailed by three, but were kept in the game by the heroic play of Fred VanVleet. With Ron Baker struggling with his shot, VanVleet took over the scoring load, finishing with 27 points.

WSU couldn’t buy a three pointer, making two of 13, so they drove to the rim, drawing fouls and making 85% of their 34 free throws. While Baker couldn’t ‘throw it in the ocean (3 of 13 from the field), he collected five steals and made nine of 10 free throws.

Zach Brown scored a career high 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Next up for Wichita State, the Kansas Jayhawks. They’ll finally meet one another on the court.

Do Good