Evansville 54, N. Iowa 51

Jan 29, 2013, 10:28 pm

EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Colt Ryan scored 23 points, including a jumper with 33 seconds left in overtime that ended up being the winning score, in Evansville's 54-51 victory over Northern Iowa on Tuesday night.

Ned Cox and Troy Taylor added nine points apiece for the Purple Aces (13-9, 6-4 Missouri Valley), and Taylor pulled down 12 rebounds. Egidijus Mockevicius had six points and 13 rebounds.

Marc Sonnen scored 11 points for the Panthers (11-11, 4-6), who lost their chance to force a second overtime when Anthony James missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Northern Iowa led 47-41 after Sonnen's 3-pointer with 1:30 left, but Ryan and Cox hit back-to-back 3s to force overtime.

Evansville has won its last five meetings with Northern Iowa and improved to 5-0 in conference home games this season.

The loss was the second straight heartbreaker for the Panthers, who fell 59-58 at Indiana State on Saturday.