DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake men's basketball team ran into nation's stingiest defense when Northern Iowa visited the Knapp Center on Sunday afternoon, and it showed.
 
The Panthers frustrated the Bulldogs on the offensive end at almost every turn and ground out a 75-53 victory in the regular-season finale to keep Drake in its month-long tailspin.
 
Down by 19 points early in the second half, the Bulldogs finally found some footing and pulled to within nine with more than nine minutes remaining. But they missed their next 11 shots and UNI finished the game on a 20-7 run to hand Drake its ninth straight loss.
 
It's now on to the Missouri Valley Tournament in St. Louis, where Drake (12-19, 6-14 MVC) will be the No. 9 seed and play at 3:30 p.m. Thursday. The Bulldogs have won the tournament each of the last three years.
 
Owen Larson and Eli Shetlar led Drake with 15 points each – Shetlar getting all of his on five baskets from deep -- and the Bulldogs got a solid contribution from Wilguens Jr. Exacte in his first game since Dec. 29. Exacte, who had been sidelined by a broken foot, scored nine points on 3-for-4 shooting with a 3-pointer and grabbed six rebounds.
 
Jalen Quinn, leading the Valley in scoring with a 19.8 average, was held to nine points, breaking a string of 13 straight games in double figures. Quinn was one of three seniors honored before the game, joining Jaehshon Thomas and Isaiah Carr.
 
Will Hornseth, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound sophomore, led UNI with 16 points and hit 7-of-11 shots, including a turnaround 3-pointer from 28 feet out at the halftime buzzer.
 
UNI (19-12, 11-9) came in leading the nation in scoring defense, allowing only 61.4 points a game. The Panthers held the Bulldogs to season lows in points, field goals (18) and field goal percentage (.310). Drake struggled to get the ball inside against its physical, aggressive foe and ended up taking 37 of its 58 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, making only nine.
 
The Panthers outscored Drake 36-16 in the paint and had 26-4 edge in points off turnovers. Drake turned it over 11 times in the first half and 15 for the game. UNI coughed it up just six times. The Bulldogs held their own on the boards, posting a 41-32 rebounding edge, and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds. They just couldn't convert enough of those offensive boards into points.
 
Exemplifying their frustration in that area, the Bulldogs got four shots on one possession when they still were within striking distance in the second half and missed all four. Moments later, UNI's Trey Campbell hit an easy 5-foot jumper to stretch the Panthers' lead to 14 with 5:21 left.
 
Drake stayed with UNI in the opening minutes, hitting four of its first eight shots and going ahead 12-10 when Thomas made a tough, well-defended shot in the lane. The Bulldogs then went into a drought and UNI ran off eight straight points to open an 18-12 lead.
 
Exacte checked in for the first time at the 10:34 mark and scored off an offensive rebound two and-a-half minutes later to end the Bulldogs' drought and start a 10-1 run that pulled Drake into a 22-19 lead, Shetlar capping the burst with his third triple of the half.
 
But the Bulldogs hit another dry spell, and UNI finished the half on a 17-2 run that Hornseth finished with his buzzer-beating trey for a 39-24 lead. The Panthers stretched the lead to 45-26 and were up 50-32 before the Bulldogs charged back with an 8-0 run made up of a Larson traditional three-point play and 3-pointer bookending Exacte's turnaround in the lane, cutting the lead to 50-40.
 
When Quinn drove for a layup with just over 9 minutes left, the Bulldogs trailed just 55-46 with plenty of time to draw closer. But they managed only four free throws over the next 8 minutes and didn't make another basket until Shetlar knocked down a trey from the left corner with 21.2 seconds left.
 
Drake's losing streak is the program's longest since the Bulldogs lost the final 10 games of the 2016-17 season. Their six league victories are the fewest since that 2016-17 team went 5-13 in the conference.
 
"Certainly not how we wanted Senior Day to go, but I'm proud of our guys and how they continue to fight and how they are resilient," Drake head coach Eric Henderson said. "Certainly have too many stretches where we just don't do enough good things to get the outcomes that we want. We will continue to fight until the end. I can promise you that."
 
Drake's next game will be down in St. Louis, Missouri for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. The Bulldogs will be the No. 9 seed and go up against the No. 8 seed Southern Illinois in the first round on Thursday, March 5. Tip-off is slated for 3:30 p.m. CT.
 
Team Notes
—Drake, suffering its ninth straight loss, slipped to 12-19 overall including a 6-14 mark in the Missouri Valley Conference.
—The Bulldogs' home record fell to 6-10
—The nine-game losing skid is the longest at the school since the 2016-17 campaign when the Bulldogs lost their last 10 games of the season.
—Drake outrebounded UNI, 41-32
—The Bulldogs were held to season lows in points, field goals (18) and field goal percentage (.310).
—Drake committed 15 turnovers in the game, 11 in the first half, for its second-highest total of the season.
 
Player Notes
—Eli Shetlar and Owen Larson led the Bulldogs in scoring each recording 15 points. Shetlar hit 5-of-12 from beyond the arc, his sixth game of the season hitting five or more treys, while Larson led the team with three assists.
—Wilguens Jr. Exacte played in his first game since Dec. 29 returning from a foot injury. In 16 minutes of action, he scored nine points and added six rebounds.
—Jalen Quinn saw a streak of 13 consecutive games scoring in double-figures snapped as he ended the day with nine points.
 —Andrew Alia led the Bulldogs in rebounding collecting eight boards in the game, six on the offensive end.
—Braden Appelhans missed the game due to a thumb injury.
 
The Series
—UNI secured the season sweep over the Bulldogs and leads the all-time series, 54-36.
—In games played from Des Moines, the Bulldogs are now 23-20 against the Panthers.