UNI Athletic Information | unipanthers.com
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The UNI women’s basketball team opened the 2026-27 campaign inside the McLeod Center on November 2, against the St. Thomas Tommies. After the Tommies edged out the Panthers in the first frame, the Cats won the final three frames, taking home a season-opening victory, 67-59.
HOW IT HAPPENED
UNI’s first bucket of the season came off the hands of Abby Tuttle from behind the arc to get the Cats on the board with a triple. The Tommies outscored the Panthers by one point in the first quarter, 15-14. An eight-point run by St. Thomas was the difference-marker in the frame, coming in the middle of the quarter’s action.
The Cats came out hot in the second quarter, scoring eight straight to take a seven-point lead just over two minutes into the frame. A triple from Elise Jaeger, her first of the season, an and-one from Callie Levin, and a fast break layup from Kaylynn Janes saw the Panthers take the lead. St. Thomas responded with five straight, but a pair of free throws from Mya Nicholson stopped the Tommie run. UNI sank four more free throws in the first half, two from Jenna Twedt and two from Lauren Walker, and led St. Thomas 28-26 at the halftime break after a buzzer-beating triple from the Tommies to close the half.
At the break, Jenna Twedt led UNI with eight points, six of which came from the charity stripe. Elise Jaeger led the UNI rebounding effort with four boards, while Callie Levin had a team-high three assists in the first half.
Out of the break, the teams traded blows before back-to-back three-pointers from Kaylynn Janes were bookended by a pair of layups for a 10-point Panther run to give UNI its first double-figure lead of the night. The Panthers led 50-43 after three quarters of opening-night action.
A pair of early jumpers, a couple of triples, and late-game free throws from the Panthers held off the St. Thomas attack in the late minutes of the contest. The Tommies cut the Panther lead to six points with 1:41 left in the matchup before UNI strung together five consecutive free throws to ice the matchup and open the season 1-0.
Abby Tuttle led UNI with 16 points. She shot 6-for-13 from the floor and 3-for-5 from beyond the arc, adding four assists and three steals.Callie Levin and Jenna Twedt rounded out UNI’s double-digit scorers with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Elise Jaeger led the Panther rebounding effort with eight boards, including three offensive rebounds.
Coach Warren was straight to the point in her postgame thoughts, “Great team win, hell of a job!”
UP NEXT
The Panthers hit the road for their first road contest of the season on November 6, in Brookings, South Dakota. The Cats take on the South Dakota State Jackrabbits inside First Bank and Trust Arena at 6 p.m. CT. Live coverage will be on Midco Sports Plus.
