Final Score (W-L)         1   2   F
UNI (11-11, 3-6 MVC)     35  33  68
Bradley (3-19, 1-8 MVC)  32  18  50
Attendance: 5,334 | Officials: John Higgins, Tom O'Neill, Brad Gaston

Jesperson's Big Night
Paul Jesperson drained 8-of-11 3-point field goal attempts en route to a career-best 28 points and UNI rode a hot night from beyond the arc to the 68-50 win at Bradley. Led by Jesperson's effort, UNI outscored Bradley 31-13 over the final 17:25 after Bradley took its only lead of the game, 38-37. UNI finished the game 15-25 (.600) from 3-point range. Matt Bohannon added 12 points on 4-for-6 3-point shooting for UNI, while Jeremy Morgan (2-4) chipped in 10 points and seven steals.

Bradley freshman guard Ronnie Suggs led the Braves with 15 points, eight rebounds and three steals in a full 40 minutes and fellow freshman guard Antoine Pittman enjoyed his first career double-digit scoring effort in conference play with 14 points.

Series Update
With its 17 win in the last 20 series games, UNI has taken over the all-time series lead against Bradley, 29-28. The Panthers join Missouri State as the only two current Missouri Valley Conference members to lead the all-time series against Bradley. In his 10th year as UNI head coach, Ben Jacobson improves to 20-5 all-time against the Braves. The Panthers have won five straight overall in the series and two in a row at Carver Arena.

First Half Recap
UNI rode 7-of-12 shooting from 3-point range, including a combined 6-for-9 effort by Paul Jesperson (3-4) and Matt Bohannon (3-5) to a 35-32 halftime lead. Bradley actually shot a better percentage from the field (.458 to .423) and the free throw line (7-7 to 6-9), while also outrebounding the Panthers, 17-14, in the opening 20 minutes. Ronnie Suggs led Bradley with 11 points and five rebounds in the first half. The Braves trailed by as many as 12 points, 27-15, with 6:56 left in the half, but battled back to a 32-32 tie before Jesperson's trey with 35 seconds left set the halftime score.

Brief Lead
With a pair of 3-pointers by Luuk van Bree and Antoine Pittman to start the second half, Bradley took its first lead of the game, 38-37, with 17:25 left in the game. Jeremy Morgan answered the Pittman trey with one of his own to put UNI back in front, 40-38, with 17:04 left. The Morgan trey started a 16-3 UNI run over the next 8-minutes, 30-seconds.

3-Point Story
While UNI made only 7-of-21 (.333) field goal attempts from inside the arc Wednesday, the Panthers made 15-of-25 (.600) from beyond the arc. In its two games against Bradley this season, UNI hit 23-of-45 (.511) of its 3-point attempts for an average of 11.5 treys per game. In its other seven Missouri Valley Conference games this season, the Panthers are 36-for-11 (.324) for an average of 5.1 treys per game.

Freshman 30
Bradley freshman forward Luuk van Bree made his first 3-point attempt of the night for his team-leading 30th trey of the season. Van Bree, who finished 2-for-4 from beyond the arc Wednesday, becomes the fifth Bradley freshman to ever make as many as 30 treys in a season and the first since Sam Maniscalco set the rookie record with 55 triples in 2007-08. Van Bree also leads all MVC freshmen in 3-point field goals made this season, now with 31.

45th Anniversary
Wednesday's game fell on the 45th anniversary of the first-ever game in the Bradley-UNI series. In the only non-conference meeting between the two programs, Bradley earned a 117-71 victory against UNI Jan. 27, 1971 at Robertson Fieldhouse.

Youthful PT
With only one non-freshman available to play for the seventh consecutive game and the eighth time overall, Bradley once again played the entire 40 minutes Saturday with no fewer than four freshmen on the floor together. Sophomore forward Donte Thomas is the only non-freshman currently on Bradley's active roster – senior center Mike Shaw has not played at all this season due to chronic back pain and senior guard Ka'Darryl Bell has missed the last seven games with a fractured right hand. In 890 minutes of game time, Bradley now has played 100 percent of the season with no fewer than three freshmen on the floor together, 85.1 percent of the season (757:30) with at least four freshmen on the court together and 29.2 percent (260:12) with five freshmen playing together.

Up Next
Bradley will hit the road for its next two games, beginning with a Saturday afternoon trip to Drake to start the second half of the league schedule. The Braves will play a rare Tuesday night game when they visit Missouri State Feb. 2. Bradley's next home game Feb. 6 will be the annual Hall of Fame Game. The school will honor the four Hall of Fame inductees during a Braves Club Game Day Luncheon on campus Feb. 5, then the quartet will be enshrined at halftime of the Feb. 6 game versus Indiana State at Carver Arena. The four Hall of Fame inductees will be former men's basketball star Phillip Gilbert, softball slugger Julie Jehle Barnett, soccer All-American Hamid Mehreioskouei and volleyball star Jenna Passman Regan.