After winning back-to-back Missouri Valley titles and reaching the NCAA tournament's round of 16 last season, Northern Iowa entered the season with high expectations.

Instead, the Panthers (11-6, 2-3 MVC) find themselves in unfamiliar territory heading into Wednesday night's game at Illinois State.

"Our five conference games, we've played pretty good basketball for a large portion of it. Indiana State played better than we did," coach Ben Jacobson said. "In league play, you're going to be in close games."

Northern Iowa has struggled on the glass and on defense.

"The one area where we have to continue to get better is our consistency at the defensive end of the floor. Continuing to make things tough for teams late in shot clocks," Jacobson said. "We've got to work hard to become a better rebounding team."

Northern Iowa has lost their two most recent games in dramatic fashion.

Kyle Weems of Missouri State hit a three-pointer to defeat the Panthers by a final of 58-57, while Carlton Fay of Southern Illinois hit a fadeawy jumper with 2.2 seconds to take a two-point lead.

“I only have so many more games left,” senior Kwadzo Ahelegbe said. “You’ve got to somehow pick yourself up.”

Coach Ben Jacobson said Monday he wasn’t going to change the way Northern Iowa prepares.

“We played good basketball last week,” Jacobson said. “We needed to rebound the ball better against Missouri State, and we needed to finish defensive possessions better in the second half against Southern Illinois.

Northern Illinois will play Evansville on Tuesday in Cedar Falls.