Two Game (Home Stand)(Road Trip)

UNI Hosts Belmont

(St. Louis, MO) – Depending on your perspective tonight’s game between Northern Iowa and Belmont is a the second of a two game home stand, or a two game road trip. While the Bruins were playing at Drake on Sunday the Panthers were hosting Southern Illinois. Now the two square off in Cedar Falls.

During the second game of a Matrix Midwest ‘Valley Game of the Week’ double-header, Belmont (9-4, 1-1) seeks to steal a road game and UNI (8-5, 2-0) hopes to ‘hold serve’ with a win at the McLeod Center. Game time on Matrix Midwest is set for 8 pm.

Road Warrior Bruins

Belmont is 3-1 on the road and is on a legitimate two game road trip. After Sunday’s contest, they stayed in Iowa for tonight’s game. The Bruins handle the ball well, but are still looking to hit their stride defensively.

Annually, one of the top shooting teams in the country, Belmont is an uncharacteristic sixth in the Valley in field goal percentage and fourth from long distance. The caveat is that the Bruins are forty-eighth nationally in effective field goal percentage which is sixth in the MVC.

Northern Iowa is fourth nationally, Indiana State is sixth and Bradley is eighth. Illinois State comes in at number 12 and Drake at thirty-nine.

Head coach Casey Alexander says the rare road trip and the play of transfer Jonathan Pierre are both unique.

Belmont leads the MVC in assists (17.8 per game) and assist/turnover ratio (1.54). Guard Carter Whitt (4.6) and Pierre (3.9) are each among the league’s top ten distributors.

Northern Iowa’s front court is filled with veterans Tytan Anderson and Jacob Hutson. Alexander says those two provide unique challenges.

Two Game Home Stand

After facing the league’s best scoring defense at Drake the Bruins now encounter the Valley’s second best team at UNI. The Panthers allow jus 66.4 points per game and run very efficient offense. UNI slows it down on the offensive end and lead the league with a .523 overall shooting percentage. The Panthers are 7-1 at home.

UNI has adapted to the injury losses to their two point guards (R.J. Taylor and Cael Schmidt). Head coach Ben Jacobson has shuffled the lineup and has utilized a taller lineup. Wing Trey Campbell has had to play more of the point.

While Belmont is known for their offensive sets and three-point shooting, the Bruins are big. Four 6’9 players are in the mix and Pierre has great versatility at that size.

With a larger lineup, Jacobson says his team is built well enough to match up with the Belmont ‘bigs’.

Hutson (13.7 ppg), Anderson (13.5) and transfer Leon Bond III (11.7) are UNI’s three most explosive scorers. Bond and Anderson each rank among the Valley’s top-ten in field goal percentage and top-20 in rebounds.

You can watch our entire conversations with Ben Jacobson or and with Casey Alexander.

Do Good

 

Editor: Cover photo of Tytan Anderson, courtesy of unipanthers.com.