MOLINE, Ill. — The quarterfinal jitters that were bothering Northern Iowa on Friday were gone by Saturday’s semifinals.
In fact, the top-seeded Panthers looked completely at home in the iWireless Center as they rolled past No. 4 Southern Illinois 67-43 and earned a spot in the Missouri Valley Conference women’s tournament final at 2 p.m. Sunday.
“We had to just let yesterday go,” junior guard Madison Weekly said. “So we just played our game.”
Weekly helped Northern Iowa (22-9) survive a 46-45 scare from Bradley on Friday by scoring 22 points.
She then set the tone Saturday, hitting five of her first six 3-point attempts, finishing with 21 points on 7-of-11 shooting overall.