Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On January 3, 1990, the Northern Iowa Panthers beat the Iowa Hawkeyes 77-74 in men’s basketball in front of a record crowd of 22,797 in the UNI Dome. Eldon Miller’s Panthers upset 20th-ranked Iowa after storming back from down five with under three minutes to play in the game.
The Panthers entered the 1989-90 campaign a team on the rise. Paced by key contributors Troy Muilenberg, Cedrick McCullough, and Steve Phyfe, the Panthers stormed out to a 5-0 start to the season before dropping a game to Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. After a one-point road win over Nevada, UNI prepared for back-to-back top-25 opponents in #3 Georgetown and #20 Iowa. Despite a lopsided loss to the Hoyas, the Panthers stood poised to provide an all-time performance when Dr. Tom Davis and the Hawkeyes arrived at the UNI-Dome early in 1990.
Early in the game, the massive crowd helped UNI race out to an early 11-point lead. However, Iowa battled back and managed to take a 72-67 lead on a James Moses layup with just two minutes and twenty seconds to play. After Jason Reese missed a jumper, Hawkeye Acie Earl nearly secured the rebound before the ball bounced out of bounds. A Brad Hill 3-pointed put the Panthers down two with just 1:47 to play. UNI’s McCullough locked up Hawkeye Ray Thompson to secure a five-second violation before Hill hit another three-pointer to take a one-point lead with 1:16 remaining. As the massive crowd roared, the Panthers secured one of the most memorable wins in program history.
The 1989-1990 UNI men’s basketball team went on to make the school’s first-ever NCAA Division I tournament appearance after a notable Mid-Continent Conference Tournament run that featured a 99-94 three-overtime win over Illinois-Chicago and a buzzer-beater win over Southwest Missouri State. Not content with just making the ‘Big Dance,’ the fourteenth-seeded Panthers knocked off third-seeded Missouri 74-71. In 2011, UNI honored the team as a member of the school’s Hall of Fame. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistroyCalendar
תגובות