Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson remains pleased with the effort despite a three game losing skid. The Panthers take an 8-6 Missouri Valley Conference record on the road to Evansville Wednesday night.

Jacobson says the Panthers need to eliminate defensive mistakes at crunch time.

Jacobson says this is a much more confident Evansville team than the one the Panthers beat 72-55 in Cedar Falls back in early December.

Jacobson wants to see a better defensive performance from his team.