Phyfe scores 21 to lift N. Iowa over Illinois St. 65-60

<p>ST. LOUIS &mdash; Austin Phyfe matched his season high with 21 points as Northern Iowa narrowly defeated Illinois State 65-60 in the first round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tourney on Thursday night.</p>
<p>Tenth-seeded Illinois State face No. 2 seed Drake in the quarterfinals on Friday.</p>
<p>Tywhon Pickford had 11 points and nine rebounds for Northern Iowa (10-15). Nate Heise added six rebounds. James Betz had three blocks.</p>
<p>Trae Berhow, whose 13 points per game entering the contest was second on the Panthers, shot only 20 percent for the game (2 of 10).</p>
<p>Dusan Mahorcic had 15 points and seven rebounds for the Redbirds (7-18). He also committed seven turnovers. Antonio Reeves added 10 points. DJ Horne had 10 points and seven rebounds.</p>
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<p>This was generated by Automated Insights, <a href="http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap">http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap</a>, using data from STATS LLC, <a href="https://www.stats.com">https://www.stats.com</a></p>