CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – The UNI women’s basketball team claimed another decisive weekday victory over Graceland University, winning 110-34.

In a game where the bench dominated, the Panthers put together a high points and assists program against the Yellowjackets. Every player who touched the ground for UNI for 40 minutes scored at least 5 points with six double-digit players.

“I think we played extremely well from start to finish on both sides of the pitch,” said the head coach Tanya warren. “I think it’s easy when you get up big to get complacent, which we talked about at halftime. I think we’re progressing as needed and as we expect to. We played a very good basketball for the most part. We tripped over a really good Creighton team, but we advanced against a great South Dakota State team. We said we were going to fall, but we have to fall forward. C ‘that’s exactly what we did. “

It was a quick start for the Panthers as a junior guard Kam finley scored the first points of the night with a driving layup in the paint 20 seconds later. The birthday girl would follow the layup with a key 3 pointer. UNI would continue to score throughout the first as they started an 8-point run midway through the quarter. The Yellowjackets regained momentum after the race scoring 9 straight points. Graceland’s race would be finished by the upper guard Nicole kroeger with a pointer at 3 that she would repeat less than 30 seconds later. The first quarter would also be the Panthers’ best on the ground, shooting over 60% from the ground and the arc with a perfect percentage on the charity strip.

The second quarter was another dominant quarterback for the Panthers as they limited the Yellowjackets to just 4 points. The UNI defense set a record scoring margin of under-scored in the 2nd quarter keeping Graceland just 4. The Panthers started the quarter with a 6-point run before the Yellowjackets broke their first basket. UNI would then have their best score of the game, scoring 11 points in the last 3 minutes of the quarter.

To start the second half, the Panthers would have had a few blows to the edge that did not fall. UNI would get their first points in the half-and-a-half from the junior center Cynthia wolf to go on a 15-point run in four minutes. It would be a fairly calm last 4 minutes of the quarter as the two teams only had one lay-up. The Panthers would get three buckets at the free throw line. But redshirt-junior guard Kiana barney would do a trey off the top of the key to finish the 3rd, keeping Graceland just 4 points for a second straight quarter.

The Yellowjackets would get the first point of the quarter on a free throw. But UNI would respond with another local Barney three. The teams traded baskets for the next 4 minutes, with the Panthers’ biggest run being 5 points. UNI finished the game with a 9-point streak for 3 minutes while Graceland got his last basket of the game in the last minute. Panthers would close it off with a first-year guard driving layup Kayba laube at the 45-second mark, marking the program’s first 110-point win.

UNI’s victory with 110 points was the most important since defeating Creighton in 1990 with 107 points. The Panthers also set a single-game assists record with 30 assists. The previous record was set in the Creighton game in 1990 with 28 assists in 40 minutes of play. The UNI bench scored 68 points in the victory with 44 points remaining. The Panthers also had 42 points on quick break chances, the highest so far this season. Overall, the team shot 39-76 (51.3%) from the floor, 16-40 (40%) from 3-point range and 16-19 (84.2%) from the line of free throws.

In individual scoring, first-year guards Maya mcdermott and Laube each had 15 points with 5 and 1 rebounds respectively. McDermott also led the team in assists with 7 assists. Rucker, Kroeger, Gunnels and Boffeli also recorded double-digit scores. Leading the team in the rebounds was the junior center Cynthia wolf with 7 followed by McDermott and the redshirt freshman forward Sara mccullough each with 5 boards.

FOLLOWING:
The Panthers hit the road for a 3-game streak over the next two weeks, with the first stop being Sunday afternoon at Ames. UNI will face Iowa Cyclones # 15 at the Hilton Coliseum on December 12. Departure is scheduled for 5 p.m.