Anyone who has seen Northern Iowa at its best in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament knows the type of game.
Low-scoring, low-possession, slow possession-when UNI has gotten on a roll at Arch Madness in recent years, the Panthers’ style of play is worthy of a registered trademark. Scores struggle to get out of-and sometimes even into-the 50s, opponents are virtually strangled by their halfcourt defense, and their deliberate offense often serves a similar purpose, with the added effect of demoralizing them with big shots at the end of the shot clock.
Top-seeded Loyola Chicago got itself locked into such a game in the quarterfinals of this year’s MVC Tournament. A potential nightmare matchup on paper against an opponent proven capable of beating top-level competition became exactly that, with the ninth-seed Panthers leading by four in the second half, the score still solidly in the 30s as the game neared its three-quarter mark.
Loyola took its medicine, though. It maintained its poise, and then it responded late. It might even be said they beat Northern Iowa at their own game as the Ramblers outlasted Northern Iowa 54-50 in a grinding, tense, classic-MVC-in-March game at the Scottrade Center.
“I thought it was a classic Valley game, especially with Northern Iowa,” said Loyola coach Porter Moser. “It was gritty. It was tough. It was ugly at times. (It’s) just crazy how well they defend. They really guard you.”
As it often is in these noon tipoff MVC quarterfinal games, where a feisty 8 or 9 seed playing its second game in 18 hours puts a big scare into the top seed, the difference came in the game’s final stages. Trailing by four with just over 10 minutes left, Loyola outscored Northern Iowa 14-2 over the next 6 1/2 minutes.
“I was proud of our guys’ mentality,” said Moser. “There were times I think we were down six…there was no panic. I think there was more panic in our fans than there was in our guys. You could just feel them pulling their hair out. And these guys, we were like, hey, we got to keep guarding. They made some big defensive plays.”
On a day when MVC Player of the Year Clayton Custer was held to just two points, freshman big man Cameron Krutwig had some struggles and the regular season champs spent a fair part of the day playing catchup, it was a pair of Loyola veterans plus a first-year Rambler with valuable postseason experience who came up huge.
Donte Ingram and Ben Richardson are the two four-year seniors on this year’s Loyola squad, guys who’ve been in their share of MVC tourney battles. Ingram picked up some of the scoring load with 13 points and also added eight rebounds, an important contribution especially in a game where UNI had a size advantage inside. His three-pointer with 3:35 left for a 47-39 lead was the basket that firmly put the Panthers in chase mode in the final minutes and out of their clock-milking, post-oriented offensive game.
Richardson’s contributions, as usual, were less noticeable on the stat sheet, though nine points, six assists and four steals are nothing to snort at. His defense in particular was exceptional again, no surprise for a player named the MVC Defensive Player of the Year.
But Richardson also hit a huge three-pointer from 30 feet out at the end of the shot clock to break a 37-37 tie with 6:58 left, and the Ramblers never trailed again the rest of the way. He scored all nine of his points in the second half, not necessarily by design but by taking the game as it came.
“I think it was the flow of the game,” said Richardson of his scoring pick-up in the second half. “I mean, Northern Iowa is super tough defensively. They’re going to make it tough on you the whole game. You’re not going to get a whole lot of looks. We want to get a lot of possessions, and they kind of slowed us down a little bit.
“I didn’t feel like I had a lot of looks in the first half, and then I kind of just let it come to me, tried to be aggressive, tried to make plays. Trying to get downhill most of the second half, I think would be more of what I was focusing on, and then some good things happened.”
Supporting those two was Marques Townes, a transfer who became a rock in the lineup this year in his first season eligible after transferring from Fairleigh Dickinson. Townes was part of an NCAA Tournament team at FDU in 2016, and he also had 13 in this one, including seven points plus all here of his assists in the second half when Loyola fell behind by four with 11:19 to play before finishing strong.
“It’s not really anything different,” said Townes of playing in the postseason. “All I tell the guys is just try to play your heart out and play every game like it’s your last. Every team here-the Missouri Valley Conference is a tough league, a real tough league. So I just told the guys like in the beginning of the game, just play your hearts out and give everything you got because nothing comes easy.”
As we mentioned last night, Northern Iowa was not the ordinary MVC tourney 9 seed. The Panthers’ wins early this season over the likes of North Carolina State, SMU (when it was healthy) and UNLV showed a team capable of beating quality squads. And the experience of seniors like Bennett Koch and Klint Carlson plus the recent emergence of senior guard Hunter Rhodes made for a team far more dangerous than its 16-15 record coming in.
Sure enough, Koch was magnificent, scoring 20 points on a bum ankle, Carlson was excellent on the glass with 15 rebounds, and Rhodes provided nine points with a number of clutch baskets as well as error-free work at the point.
This wasn’t the first time Loyola has had to play from behind recently, though. In fact, the Ramblers trailed Illinois State at home in the second half in their regular season finale, and also had to work hard to win at Indiana State late in the season.
“Yeah, that’s one aspect of this team that I think is pretty special,” said Richardson. “We’ve had adversity a couple times, and we’ve responded. Times we’ve been down, Senior Night, went down six in the second half against Illinois State, and we didn’t panic. We just did the little things we need to do to win, make a little play here and there, and focus on doing that rather than hitting the home run.”
An experienced core mixed with some key newcomers has keyed a big season for Loyola, which is now 26-5, will face Drake or Bradley in the tourney semifinals and-from here-should be an NCAA Tournament team, Arch Madness title or not. And while Custer has obviously been the engine that makes the team go-as evidenced by the team’s 24-2 record when he’s in the lineup and three of the team’s five losses coming when he was out injured for a time-it’s been the contributions of many that It’s been a team effort the entire season.
“It’s real important,” said Moser of the team’s many weapons and how others picked up the slack even while its leader struggled. “I mean, for guys there was no panic. Obviously, Clayton was struggling, and you look at some of the big plays down the stretch the second half the guys made, and that’s why-not one person can lead a team to 26 wins.”
