The Panthers insisted its win over Wichita State on Wednesday night was just another game, one Northern Iowa will quickly put behind them.  Taking a commanding three-game lead atop the Missouri Valley Conference,.Kwadzo Ahelegbe scored 18 points, 15 in the second half, and Northern Iowa (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 24 AP) hung on to beat the Shockers 59-56.

Avenging a 60-51 loss in Wichita on Jan. 19 and put the second-place Shockers in a hole that might be too deep to climb out of, Jordan Eglseder added 15 points for the Panthers (20-2, 11-1),

“I don’t talk about that with our guys. I really don’t,” stated Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson. “We talked about being tougher than we were at their place on the defensive end of the floor, being tougher on the offensive end of the floor, finishing plays.”

It might have been a good thing that the Northern Iowa coach did not bring up all the benefits of a victory, because it almost didn’t happen. Wichita State (19-5, 8-4) buried consecutive 3-pointers to pull within 58-56 with 1:54 left, then with only 31 seconds left, got the ball back. Clevin Hannah’s desperation heave bounced off the rim. and Toure’ Murry missed a 3 from the elbow, ouch!

With having 17 points to lead Wichita State, Murry came in ranked ninth in the nation in free-throw percentage but shot just 10 of 17 from the line. “We had our chances. We just couldn’t make the plays at the end, those shots at the end,” Gregg Marshall, Wichita State coach said.

The game was a typical Valley slugfest, with style points and baskets in short supply. Of course, that is exactly the kind of play the pesky Panthers excel at. Also, it didn’t hurt that Ahelegbe shook off a terrible first half and carried the Panthers offense down the stretch.

Ahelegbe muscled a tough layup in traffic to put Northern Iowa ahead 44-41 with 8:34 left, and drilled a pull-up 15-footer. Eglseder’s three-point play off a steal by Ali Farokhmanesh gave the Panthers a 47-41 lead. Wichita State quickly cut the score to one. With just under 4 minutes left, Ahelegbe followed a 3 with yet another mid-range jumper to give Northern Iowa a 53-46 lead.

In the first half, Ahelegbe was 1 of 9 from the field, but finished 8 of 18, helping rescue an offense that shot just 38 percent from the field. But Jacobson also pointed to the contributions of reserve forward Lucas O’Rear, who finished with nine rebounds — five offensives — and helped set the tone in the paint.

“I thought [O'Rear] was probably the difference,” said Jacobson. “He’s a worker. He finds a way to come up with loose balls, come up with rebounds.”

Gabe Blair contributed 12 points for the Shockers, who fell to 5-4 on the road.  The Panthers fell behind by as much as 18-10 and missed 12 of their first 15 shots. After a hot start, Wichita State could only muster four points during a 9 1/2-minute stretch late in the first half, allowing rival Northern Iowa to jump ahead 25-22.

Hannah and Murry responded with 3s in the final 1:18 to give the Shockers a 28-27 halftime lead — despite the fact that Northern Iowa outrebounded them 10-0 on the offensive glass.
So far for the Panthers, the loss at Wichita State is the only hiccup in the Valley, who now seem poised to run away with the league title.

Northern Iowa hasn’t been flashy in anyway; in fact, it needed a late rally to steal a 55-54 win at Missouri State last weekend,  but its unstoppable defense was once again enough to help the Panthers survive.

In scoring defense at 55.1 points per game, Northern Iowa entered play second in the nation.

“We just talk about being more aggressive in everything we do,” Jacobson said. “I just thought we were a much more aggressive team [Wednesday] than we were at Wichita.”
Still lacking a road win, Wichita State has rattled off one of the better starts in school history. Happening at home, its biggest wins to date, was against Northern Iowa and Texas Tech.

There is still a chance for the Shockers to finish strong. They play four of their final six conference games at home and have two games left against last-place Evansville.
“We’re going to try and win games and do what we can do,” said Marshall. “Obviously we need a lot of help at this point.”