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Northern Iowa men’s basketball defeats Drake to secure outright Valley title

Des Moines Register

A sold-out Knapp Center saw the Northern Iowa men’s basketball team clinch the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title outright on Saturday evening.

The Panthers beat Drake, 70-43, to finish the regular season 25-5 overall and 14-4 in Valley play. They secured their first outright league title since 2010, and will be the 1-seed at next week’s conference tournament in St. Louis.

"It means a lot," Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. "It really does. I talk about it every year, just how hard this league is. The coaching in this league, the players in this league — they just never stop fighting.