Ryley Goebel

CEDAR FALLS — The Missouri Valley Conference race has gotten away from the Northern Iowa women’s basketball team, but the Panthers are still primed for a run at the MVC Tournament.

UNI led Evansville from wire-to-wire thanks to a balanced scoring effort in Thursday’s 71-54 conference victory inside the McLeod Center.

Nine different players put up points for the Panthers (15-13, 10-7), who host Drake (19-9, 13-4) in a pivotal Valley matchup on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Bulldogs are still in the hunt for an MVC regular-season crown, just one game back of Missouri State.

Northern Iowa scored the game’s first four points against Evansville (6-22, 2-15) and never relinquished the lead. The Panthers led by as many as 23 points before the final horn.

Kayba Laube and Maya McDermott scored a team-high 13 points apiece for the Panthers. Emerson Green, Shateah Wetering and Ryley Goebel added 10 points each, with Goebel adding a game-high 15 rebounds.

It marked the first career double-double for Goebel, a junior from Center Point-Urbana.

Maggie Hartwig scored a game-high 17 points to go with 10 rebounds for her own double-double to lead Evansville. Camryn Runner chipped in 13 points and Julia Palomo added 12 for the Purple Aces, who suffered their 21st consecutive loss in the series with Northern Iowa.

UNI 71, Evansville 54

EVANSVILLE (6-22, 2-15) — Hartwig 6-11 3-4 17, Runner 3-12 6-6 13, Palomo 3-8 5-5 12, Luebbers Palmer 1-6 2-2 5, Clement 1-5 0-0 2, Dozier 0-2 2-2 2, Kelley 0-2 2-2 2, Kreinhagen 0-5 1-4 1. TOTALS 14-51 21-25 54.

N. IOWA (15-13, 10-7) — Laube 4-7 2-2 13, McDermott 3-9 6-6 13, Green 4-12 2-3 10, Wetering 4-7 1-3 10, Goebel 4-7 1-3 10, Jaeger 2-4 2-2 6, Janes 2-5 1-2 6, Robinson 1-3 0-0 2, Wharton 0-4 1-2 1, Corbin 0-0 0-0 0, Foster 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS 25-59 15-22 71.

EVANSVILLE 10 17 14 13 — 54

N. IOWA 17 18 26 10 — 71

3-Point Goals–Evansville 5 (Hartwig 2, Runner, Palomo, Luebbers Palmer), UNI 6 (Laube 3, McDermott, Wetering, Janes). Rebounds–Evansville 32 (Hartwig 10), UNI 45 (Goebel 15). Assists–Evansville 10 (Kelley 5), UNI 13 (Wetering 3). Total Fouls–Evansville 17, UNI 17. Fouled Out–Goebel. A–2,796.