CEDAR FALLS, Ia. — Ben Jacobson is starting to sense a change.
The first evidence surfaced in Sunday’s blowout win over Drake, which snapped Northern Iowa’s seven-game losing skid and marked its first victory in more than a month. But at various points in this Panther season, UNI has immediately stumbled after uncovering hints of progress.
That’s flipped with Wednesday’s performance. There was no step backward.
Bennett Koch thrived once again. There was offensive assistance around Jeremy Morgan. The defensive miscues remained significantly cleaned up. And with that came UNI’s 72-69 gut-it-out win over Loyola in double overtime, a drastic improvement from its double-digit loss to the Ramblers on Jan.