Missouri Valley Conference Basketball

Northern Iowa vs Wichita State Basketball Recap

Northern Iowa 59, Wichita State 56

There's still a month of regular season basketball to be played, but in a conference where only two teams have stood above everyone else, it's highly recommended to win a top-two tussle. Because the Northern Iowa Panthers did just that on a contentious Wednesday night in Cedar Falls, Iowa, it's not only possible, but likely, that on February 3, 2010, coach Ben Jacobson's team won the 2010 Missouri Valley Conference championship.

The 2010 season of Valley basketball has, for the most part, resembled a multi-car pile-up. The third- and eighth-place teams in the league (Creighton and - in a tie for eighth - Southern Illinois and Missouri State) are separated by only two games, so when second-place Wichita State made the trek northeast to the McLeod Center, the Shockers needed to pop the Panthers in order to have a particularly realistic chance of taking home some hardware... and walk away with even more important prizes as well.

As much as first place in the Valley might have meant to WSU and coach Gregg Marshall, the ramifications of this event easily outstripped the conference race itself. Wichita State had already beaten UNI earlier in the season on its home court in Kansas, but a Shocker squad that entered this game with few quality non-conference wins (especially on the road) needed to beat the Panthers again. Wichita's one remotely impressive non-conference win came in a home-court conquest of Texas Tech, a team that's highly unlikely to reach the NCAA Tournament. It might have been cruel and it might have been harsh as well, but Wichita needed to work more wonders against the Missouri Valley leader (and defending regular season champion) in order to feel good about its prospects on Selection Sunday.

Marshall 's men tried hard and pushed the Valley's best team to the brink, but in the final two minutes, the well simply ran dry for the dejected visitors.

Wichita - it's important to note - never allowed this game to spin out of control. Just when it seemed UNI was about to put its foot down, the Shockers came right back with a mini-flurry of activity. A classic illustration of this dynamic emerged when - with 4:02 remaining in regulation - WSU set about the business of trimming a 53-46 UNI lead down to size. Four free throws and a 3-pointer allowed the guests to produce a 7-3 run and narrow the gap to 56-53 in favor of the Panthers with 2:28 to go. With one concerted push, the second-place team in the Valley would have been able to boast a head-to-head series sweep, the kind of poker chip which would have gone a long way toward making the MVC a two-bid league in mid-March.

But Northern Iowa - being greedy and cruel - found the forceful finishing kick that could very possibly limit the Valley to one NCAA entrant.

The Panthers - who love playing the game at a slower pace and with a lower score - threw down their very best defense in the final 1:51 of regulation. Despite a failure to hit a single field goal attempt in that period of time, UNI didn't allow Wichita State to score a basket, either. The only point scored in the game's final 111 seconds was a free throw by UNI's Kerwin Dunham with seven ticks left on the clock. When Wichita guard Clevin Hannah missed a final 3-point fling that would have tied the game with four seconds left, the Panthers had tightened their grip on first place in the Valley.

The Shockers were forced to watch UNI's on-court celebration, as a conference race encountered a decisive moment with the postseason still more than a month away.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Staff Writer