Photo via Mick Lite.
(Photo Credit: Mick Lite)
The 2016 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Championship; winner gets a guaranteed bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was the four seed Northern Iowa (UNI) Panthers against the two seed Evansville Purple Aces. In the previous two matchups in the regular season, UNI took down Evansville in both games. And in the MVC Championship, that would be the story once again as UNI defeated Evansville 56-54 to win the tournament for the second year in a row. The tournament’s MVP was UNI’s Wes Washpun.
Early on, it was nothing but Panthers. The two teams quickly traded buckets, flying out to a 5-5 tie. But after the game was tied, UNI went on an early 21-4 run to
Photo via Mick Lite.
put them up double digits. Evansville was cold early and couldn’t hit shots or function on offense. Evansville senior veterans D.J. Balentine and Egidijus Mockevicius were just being completely shut down thanks to an aggressive and smothering defense by Northern Iowa. Whilst shutting down the Aces on offense, the Panthers capitalized at the other end, with a scoring onslaught, which included three pointers from Jeremy Morgan and Wyatt Lohaus.
The Purple Aces were final able to end their dry streak, when guard Balentine hit a shot plus the foul, and knocking down the free throw. Despite finally hitting a shot, Evansville’s deficit was still in double digits. The Purple Aces did
Photo via Mick Lite.
not look like the team they have been all weekend and just couldn’t make shots nor defend the Panthers on the other end. They were able to string together a few minutes of quality basketball to close out the half but UNI was just too strong and led Evansville at the half, 32-18. Northern Iowa was just one half away from winning their second straight MVC Tournament Championship.
If you thought in the second half that UNI would continue the blowout and go on for an easy victory, you were wrong. After some back and forth action, Evansville stormed back. Thanks in part to better defensive effort, Evansville started to shut down UNI and Balentine nailed a couple tough layups and Jaylon Brown dropped several threes. The Evansville fan section in Scottrade Center was going insane!
With 3:30 remaining in the game and the Aces down one, Balentine put on his Superman cape and drove through traffic and nailed the tough shot to put the Aces up 48-47, their first lead since the score was 5-2. Balentine and Washpun battled it out down the stretch, both hitting tough shots. Down two, Balentine was fouled and went to the line to shoot two. He nailed both of them. So the game was tied at 54 with just under 20 seconds to play. Washpun waited until the clock was under five and started to drive and pulled up, the ball went off the rim, up, and in as time expired to give UNI the 56-54 win and their second straight MVC Tournament Championship. UNI’s skilled point guard Wes Washpun won tournament MVP.
