Indiana St. rallies to beat Northern Iowa 87-81

Feb 1, 2014, 10:28 pm

CENTER FALLS, Iowa -- Khristian Smith scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as Indiana State rallied back from a double-digit halftime deficit to defeat Northern Iowa 87-81 on Saturday night.

Northern Iowa (11-11, 5-5 Missouri Valley Conference) led 45-34 at the half but Indiana State went on a 12-1 run to open up the second and tie up the score with 16:09 remaining. The Sycamores (17-5, 8-2) combined for three 3-pointers in the run, and shot 9 of 23 from distance.

Dawon Cummings finished with 18 points and four 3-pointers for Indiana State, scoring 11 points in the second half.

The Sycamores held Northern Iowa to seven points in the first 7 minutes of the second half. Northern Iowa went on a 10-5 run in the final minute, but couldn't close the gap.

Deon Mitchell scored 21 points to lead the Panthers, who combined to shoot 49.1 percent from the floor.