Cedar Falls, Iowa- Gal Mekel hit his first three-pointer of the night, as Wichita State (10-15, 3-11 MVC) and Northern Iowa (15-10, 7-7 MVC), headed into overtime in Wednesday night's conference game.

The Shockers battled back from an eight-point deficit in the extra minutes to come within four with 52 seconds left. P.J. Couisnard collected an offensive rebound and put it back up to cut it to two, and then Phillip Thomasson forced a turnover from UNI's Adam Viet. Mekel quickly hit another three to take a late lead, but Viet answered on the other end with his own tre. Down by two with 5 seconds on the clock, Matt Braeuer drove to the Shockers' end of the court and put up a three to win the game, but the shot rattled all around and eventually out, as Northern Iowa hung on for the 77-75 win.

"I told (Matt Braeuer) to go all the way. I don't know if he heard me or not because we only had four seconds and not timeouts. But he did a good job of creating a look. It hit the front rim, back rim and bounced out though. That's a microcosm of our season. But our guys are continuing to fight and something good is going happen before this season is over. I just know it."

Mekel had collected six points in the first 39:30 of the game, with four of them coming from the free throw line. But the sophomore guard became hot when needed, sinking his first three with 29 seconds remaining in regulation. Mekel added two more during overtime.

UNI could not miss a shot in overtime, going 5-for-5 from the field. The only ball not to connect was a free throw.

"It's sad we had to lose a great basketball game. (UNI) made shots in the overtime and deserves credit. Our guys deserve credit for not folding. All in all I was proud of our effort and UNI really shot it tonight."

WSU held as much as a seven-point lead in the first half (17-10), and were still up by six with 6:37 left. UNI then scored eight straight points - four by Coleman - to take its first lead of the game, 24-22, with just under four minutes in the half. WSU regained the lead, 30-28, on a Couisnard layup with 23 seconds left, but Josten was fouled with three seconds remaining, and made both free throws to pull the Panthers even at 30 at the break.

UNI led 37-35 early in the second half, before going on a 10-2 run. Coleman got the Panthers started with a dunk, and Reed finished it off with back-to-back three-pointers, to push UNI's lead to its largest point, 47-37, with just over 12 minutes remaining in regulation. Wichita State scored eight straight, culminated by a conventional three-point play from Couisnard, to get within 47-45 with 8:42 left, but the Panthers extended their lead back to seven, 57-50, on a three-pointer from Josten with 5:18 left.

The Panthers led by eight, 60-52, with just over three minutes left. Thomasson converted a three-point play with 2:09 left, fouling Coleman out in the process. After Koch made one of two free throws to extend UNI's lead to 61-55, Braeuer's layup with 1:34 left got the Shockers within 61-57. Thomasson scored to pull the Shockers within two, and after Kerwin Dunham made one of two free throws to put the Panthers up 62-59, Mekel hit a deep three to tie the game at 62 all with 28.4 second left. UNI ran the clock down for the final shot, but Josten's jumper from the left wing missed and the game went to overtime.

Couisnard collected a game-high 22 points. Braeuer added 16 points, while Mekel and Thomasson finished with 15 and 12 points, respectively. Couisnard also led the team in rebounding with eight.

Five Panthers ended in double-digits with Adam Koch leading the way with 16 points. Jared Josten added 15 and Eric Coleman put up 14. Travis Brown and Carlton Reed each contributed 10 points. Coleman brought down a game-high 11 rebounds.

The Shockers return home to face Southern Illinois on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 6:05 p.m.

-Wichita State-