UNI Beats George Mason

The UNI Panthers salvaged a split of their two-game road trip through the state of Virginia, recording a 73-65 victory at George Mason Tuesday night (Dec. 8, 2015).

Paul Jesperson led the offensive effort for UNI (6-2 overall), scoring a career-high 19 points and grabbing 12 rebounds -- his first career double-double. Wes Washpun also tallied 19 points for the Panthers, and Matt Bohannon followed with 14.

UNI was coming off an 82-67 loss at Richmond on Saturday.

The Panthers built an 18-point lead in the first half at 27-9 and led 33-26 at the break. UNI forced 10 George Mason turnovers in the first half, while turning it over only three times on the Patriots' home floor at EagleBank Arena.

George Mason (4-6 overall) whittled the Panthers' advantage to 53-52 with 5:46 left, before the UNI regained momentum with a 10-0 run.

Bohannon started the run with a his third 3-pointer of the game, then Washpun followed with a driving layup to give the Panthers a six-point lead at 58-52. Next, Jesperson canned a three-pointer with 1:43 left to push the margin back to nine at 61-52. Jesperson added two more free throws to complete the scoring run.

UP NEXT: UNI will be back in action at 8 p.m. on Saturday, facing the New Mexico Lobos at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M. The game will be shown live on ESPN3.