• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Northern Iowa handles Evansville

Feb 26, 2015 - 4:27 AM Cedar Falls, IA (SportsNetwork.com) - Deon Mitchell dropped 17 points and No. 10 Northern Iowa disposed of Evansville, 68-57, on Wednesday.

Potential MVC player of the year Seth Tuttle finished with 10 points and eight rebounds for Northern Iowa (27-2, 16-1 MVC), winners of a school-record 16 straight games following a loss to Evansville to open conference play.

Paul Jesperson and Matt Bohannon each hit three 3-pointers for 11 and nine points, respectively.

Northern Iowa has a showdown set for Saturday at No. 11 Wichita State with the regular-season title on the line. UNI won the first meeting, 70-54, in Cedar Falls on Jan. 31.

D.J. Balentine led Evansville (19-10, 9-8) with 16 points and Egidijus Mockevicius gave 10 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in the setback.

UNI scored on four of its first six possessions and led 13-4 early on.

Bohannon and Jesperson hit consecutive 3s late in the first half, and it was 36-24 at the break.

Mockevicius' three-point play 4 1/2 minutes into the second half sparked an 11-0 run that had the Purple Aces within five. But the Panthers answered with eight in a row to regain momentum.

The lead ballooned to 18 late in the game before Evansville scored nine of the final 11 points.

Game Notes

Mitchell shot 5-for-5 from the field and 6-for-9 from the stripe ... UNI shot 23-for-44 (52.3 percent) from the floor ... Evansville concludes its regular season slate at home against Illinois State on Saturday.