Northern Iowa Panthers Win Fourth Straight Game

The Northern Iowa Panthers are starting to play their best basketball of the season.

They kept it going on Saturday night, taking down the Drake Bulldogs by a final score of 71-64.  They were led by seniors Marc Sonnen and Anthony James who each scored 17 points in the ball game.  The Panthers were able to play their style of basketball, one that they have used to get on this four game winning streak.  The Panthers played good defense once again and were able to shoot 50 percent from the three-point line.  When they do this, they are a very difficult team to beat.

Going forward for the Panthers, the remaining schedule is very favorable.  The last four games are all games they should win.

If they can win out, they would be at 20-11 overall and have an outside shot of winning the valley with the way the top three in the conference have playing. If it wasn’t for a few tough losses in the early part of the conference season, the Panthers would be in consideration for the NCAA tournament by way of the at-large variety.

I believe that they will finish in the top two within the conference and make some noise in the conference tournament.  They have been playing with extreme confidence over the last two weeks and it has shown in the win column. The players have seemed to find what their role is and they have shortened the bench and it seems to be working well for them.

It’s nice to see the Panthers having success now as they opened up with one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country earlier this year.