MOLINE, Ill. – Northern Iowa found an answer whenever it was threatened and nailed down a spot in the semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference women’s basketball tournament.
Maya McDermott scored 20 points and the fourth-seeded Panthers sank eight key free throws in the final minute to hold off No. 5 Illinois State 79-75 on Friday afternoon.
Illinois State made it a game after trailing by 13 midway through the third quarter, but the Panthers kept scoring at the right time and the Redbirds never could make it a one-possession game in the closing minutes
Kayba Laube added 17 points for Northern Iowa (16-14) and went 5-for-5 on 3-pointers to tie the tournament record for accuracy from beyond the arc. Cailyn Morgan gave the Panthers a big lift with a career high 13 points and made all five of her free throws, four of them in the final 39 seconds
Morgan also grabbed five rebounds, handed out two assists and made a steal. Taryn Wharton provided help off the bench with nine points and Grace Boffeli collected 11 rebounds to go with eight points.
Maya Wong led Illinois State (21-11) with 19 points and five assists. Abbie Aalsma matched her career high with four 3-pointers in scoring 16 points and DeAnna Wilson added 12 points and eight rebounds. Kate Bullman had a solid game with nine points, nine rebounds, five assists, a steal and a block.
Northern Iowa, which came back strong in conference play after starting the season 1-9, will play top-seeded Drake in the semis at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Drake swept the regular-season series between the two, 79-71 in Cedar Falls and 79-77 in Des Moines.
UNI seemed to be in control for most of the way against Illinois State, building a 31-13 lead in the second quarter and taking a 37-26 lead into halftime after shooting 55 percent in the first two quarters.
The Panthers were up 49-36 halfway through the third quarter when the Redbirds began chipping away. They pulled to 53-50 when Wong fed Aalsma for a 3, but Morgan’s three-point play at the end of the quarter and another by Ryley Goebel at the start of the fourth increased the lead to 59-50.
UNI went up by as many as 11 before ISU charged back again, cutting the lead to 75-71 when Aalsma buried a trey from the left corner with 28.3 seconds to go.
The Redbirds got no closer. McDermott cashed in two free throws and Morgan made two more to wrap it up. All told, the Panthers went 8-for-10 at the line in the final 45.2 seconds.
Illinois State shot 50 percent in the second half after making just 11 of 31 shots in the opening half. UNI finished at 52.6 percent for the game and outrebounded the Redbirds 38-32.