CEDAR FALLS - Twelve days ago, the University of Northern Iowa basketball team was on cruise control.

With a three-game cushion in the Missouri Valley Conference race and six games to go, it seemed to be a matter of when, not if, the Panthers would secure their first regular-season championship.

Well, UNI's season has hit a February speed bump.

After Wednesday night's 47-46 hiccup to Drake at the McLeod Center, the Panthers have dropped three of their last four, and their league lead has vanished.

However, head coach Ben Jacobson isn't afraid his team's season, during which it owned a school-record 11 straight wins, is slipping away.

"I'm not afraid of anything when it comes to our basketball team and our program," Jacobson said. "I'm not afraid of success and neither are our players. They'll never be.

"We're going to continue to play good basketball."

UNI (18-9, 12-4 MVC) was good enough defensively to prevail Wednesday, but its offense was far from crisp. The Panthers committed a season-high 21 turnovers - 14 in the first half - and shot 34.9 percent.

Despite that, Jacobson's club still had a chance to walk out of the arena with a win.

Trailing by one with 5.2 seconds remaining, Jordan Eglseder had two free throws to give UNI the lead, but the 7-foot-1 junior - a 63 percent foul shooter - missed both.

"I was thinking he was going to make them, especially the way we've been playing lately and our luck," said Drake forward Jonathan Cox, whose team had lost eight of its last 10. "Unfortunately for them, he didn't make them."

Eglseder, who had a team-high 11 points and 10 rebounds, was on the bench for more than eight minutes before returning to the game for the final offensive sequence.

The play was designed for Eglseder. As Ali Farokhmanesh fed him the ball, Eglseder went up and his jumper in the lane nearly went in as he was fouled by Brent Heemskerk.

"I felt like I had a chance to come out and win it for us," Eglseder said. "I just didn't finish."

After clanking the first free throw off the rim, Drake called timeout to ice Eglseder. He followed with another miss.

Adam Koch battled for the rebound and back-tapped the ball toward midcourt. Johnny Moran retrieved it, but all the freshman had time for was a desperation heave from nearly 50 feet as time expired.

Drake (16-12, 7-9) lost to UNI by 22 points and trailed by 37 at one point in Des Moines last month.

"We clearly played better today," Drake coach Mark Phelps said. "I hate to oversimplify it, but that's my answer.

"Our guys played with a lot of grit tonight."

Eglseder, meanwhile, stomped his feet in disgust and walked off the court with his head slumped.

"We just patted him on the back and said, 'Hey, get it next time,'" forward Lucas O'Rear said. "You can't hang your hat on that stuff."

The Panthers are now tied with Creighton, which has won seven straight, for the conference lead, and Illinois State is one game back with two games remaining.

"The game wasn't decided in the last five seconds," Jacobson said. "It's a 40-minute game. We had all sorts of time and all sorts of possessions to make better plays and put ourselves in better position to win."

UNI was averaging 11.4 turnovers per outing, but surpassed that mark with three minutes left in the first half. The Panthers also made only four of 19 shots from the 3-point line, marking the third time in four games they've shot below 40 percent from the field.

Drake's Josh Young, an all-conference performer who had only three points in the first meeting, finished with a game-high 16 points. The junior, who fueled a 15-3 Drake surge in the second half, made several big shots down the stretch.

"He hadn't been playing great recently, so his confidence wasn't at a high level," Phelps said. "But he believed in himself, and his teammates believed in him.

"Certainly, we don't win the game without Josh Young being at his best."

SHORT SHOTS: Eglseder has reached double figures in five of the last six games. … UNI's seven assists matched a season low, while the 46 points equaled the second lowest mark, only to the 43 scored against Marquette. … The Panthers had 13 offensive rebounds, marking the fourth straight game they've had 10 or more.

Contact Matt Coss at (319) 291-1468 or matt.coss@wcfcourier.com