Northern Iowa plays in the late game in Oklahoma City tonight (Friday) at 8:50 against Texas in the N-C-A-A Tournament. Panther coach Ben Jacobson expects Longhorns coach Shaka Smart to use a lot of pressure defense. “I watched their game at Iowa State…in that game they pressed quite a bit. They don’t press nearly as much as they did when he was at V-C-U,” Jacobson says. “Now in saying that, in the Iowa State game they full court pressed, did some trapping, we’ve seen that as well, so that is going to be part of their game.”

He says the pressure will come in both the full court and half court. Jacobson says Smart likes an up-tempo game. “They are going to get the ball — made shot or missed shot — they are going to push it at you, so your transition defense has to be good. They go hard and to the boards and rebound. That system, his personality, you see it. Everything they do is coming at you,” Jacobson says.

The Panthers like to control the tempo of games and Jacobson says they haven’t tried add anything new as they’ve prepared. “I don’t know that either team is going to change much. We are both going to work hard to get our team to do what we do,”according to Jacobson. That philosophy is based on past tourney experience.

“”I guess what I’ve learned is, now is not the time to be messing around. The key is that your guys play with a lot of confidence and that they play loose,” Jacobson explains. “And the only way to do that is to do the things that you’ve been doing awhile. And that’s really become our approach.” The 11th seeded Panthers come into the game with a 22-12 record, while the sixth seeded Longhorns are 20-12.

(Learfield Sports)

Iowa is in fourth place after the first session of the NCAA Wrestling Tournament in New York.  The Hawkeyes moved six of their nine wrestlers into the round of 16. Thomas Gilman at 125 and Sammy Brooks at 184 both scored technical falls. Defending champion Ohio State has the team lead with 16.5 points. Penn State is second with 16, Nebraska is third with 13, and Iowa fourth with 11 points.

Iowa State is tied for 12th in the team race after advancing four wrestlers. Cyclone 174-pounder Lelund Weatherspoon posted one of the biggest upsets of the rounding round, beating the number-two seeded wrestler from Cornell. Northern Iowa has five wrestlers in the tournament and three posted first-round wins.

(Radio Iowa)

The University of Iowa women’s basketball team’s comeback bid fell short in a 77-72 loss to Ball State on Thursday night in the opening round of the WNIT. HawkeyeSports.com reports the Hawkeyes trailed by as many as 16 points early in the third quarter and by 13 (59-46) with 1:24 left before building some momentum with the quarter’s final five points. Freshman Megan Gustafson’s layup cut the lead to 11 and sophomore Whitney Jennings hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to get Iowa to within single digits at 59-51.

Iowa finished with a 42.6 field goal percentage; Ball State shot 42.9 percent. The Cardinals made 5-of-12 3-pointers, four coming in the first half, and finished 18-of-24 from the free throw stripe. Iowa was 7-of-18 from 3-point range and 13-of-19 from the free throw line.

The Hawkeyes committed just two more turnovers (12-10), but Ball State turned the Iowa miscues into 15 points. Iowa had four players finish in double figures with Gustafson leading the way with 22 points and 12 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season. She made 9-of-15 field goals and eight of her rebounds came on the offensive glass. Ally Disterhoft finished with 19 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, while Jennings and Davis had 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Iowa finishes the 2015-16 season with a 19-14 overall record.

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — Miguel Cabrera hit his third homer of the spring and Mike Pelfrey pitched five scoreless innings for the second straight time to lead the Detroit Tigers past the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 on Thursday. JaCoby Jones and Nate Schierholtz also homered for the Tigers.

Pelfrey struck out three and allowed three hits in his fourth start of the spring. He lowered his ERA to 1.17. Bruce Rondon, hoping to be the setup pitcher to Francisco Rodriguez in the Tigers’ bullpen, pitched a scoreless inning and saw his spring ERA drop to 8.53.

Carlos Martinez started for the Cardinals and went 2 2-3 innings, allowing two runs and the Cabrera homer. Jeremy Hazelbaker had a three-run homer for the Cardinals.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — For years, Shaka Smart could play the underdog card as Virginia Commonwealth’s coach. Smart’s mid-major program beat the big boys all the way to the 2011 Final Four, and his VCU squads won two NCAA Tournament games in 2012 and 2013.

Now, he’s in his first year at Big 12 member Texas. And for the first time, Smart leads the Goliath from the Power Five conference against the mid-major in March. Texas (20-12), seeded sixth in the West Region, plays Number 11 seed Northern Iowa (22-12) Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Northern Iowa won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.