How Northern Iowa nearly stunned Iowa in Friday-night thriller

IOWA CITY — The No. 22 Iowa women’s basketball team survived an upset-minded Northern Iowa, earning a 92-86 win to cap off the non-conference slate on Friday.

The Hawkeyes (10-2, 0-1 Big Ten) led by as much as 18 in the second quarter, but the Panthers (5-6, 0-0 Missouri Valley) managed to trim the lead to one with 4:38 remaining before bowing out.

Panthers play with house money

Maya McDermott nonchalantly fielded the question as though the UNI star did not understand the improbability of her team’s comeback. ESPN Analytics assigned Iowa a 98.6% win probability when A.J. Ediger scored to give the Hawkeyes a 53-35 lead with 24 seconds remaining in the first half.

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McDermott and the Panthers had been there. And, they’d done that.

“Last year, we were down to Murray State 20-plus,” McDermott said. “So, we knew we could do it. We just have to believe. … We just had to settle in. Shots were finally falling the second half and we just believed that we could. So, we did it.”

According to the senior guard, who ranks fifth nationally in points per game, UNI played the second half with “house money.”…

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