Taren OBrien scored a career-high 20 points, but Northern Iowa matched that with 20 by Amy Swisher as the Panthers topped Illinois State 71-59 in Valley action at Redbird Arena Thursday.
The Redbirds fall to 5-14 overall and 3-7 in the Missouri Valley Conference, while Northern Iowa improves to 12-9 overall and 7-3 in the MVC.
Kristi Larson chipped in 12 points and Katie Donovan recorded 10 rebounds for the Redbirds. Swisher got scoring help from Kate Miller who had 15 points, and Abbi Schutte who chipped in 13 points.
A tight game for the first 13 minutes, the Panthers edged out to a 21-15 lead on a 7-0 run punctuated by Angela Borks three-pointer with 5:59 left in the half. OBrien scored back-to-back baskets to cut the lead to 21-19, but Millers three-pointer started a 13-4 run to take a 34-23 halftime lead.
It only took the Redbirds nine minutes to get the lead back. OBrien scored six points and assisted on six more to lead a 20-5 Redbird run which ended in a Donovan jumper with 12:14 left to tie the score at 41-41 and Michelle Harakas hit a jumper 42 seeconds later to put ISU ahead 43-41, the first Redbird lead since 15-14 in the first half.
Northern Iowa coach Tony DiCecco was impressed with Illinois States improvement over the past four weeks.
Illinois State is much improved since they visited Cedar Falls, said DiCecco. They have really solidified what they do.
ISU led 45-43 on two free throws by Michelle Harakas with 9:28 left before Swisher hit the first of three straight UNI shots, the last two by Kate Cline, and the Panthers went back ahead 49-45 heading into the last eight minutes.
The Redbirds caught up at the 6:05 mark on a pair of White free throws, 51-51, but Swisher scored seven and Schutte added a basket for a 9-0 run to make it 60-51 Panthers with 3:40 left.
We started giving them a lot of second chances, particularly in the last seven minutes, said Yopp, who was missing center Sharon Blade and guard Heidi Harnisch, and had a couple of other players weakened from a virus.
