ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands - Northern Iowa's basketball team started the Paradise Jam with a thud. Monday, the Panthers finished it with a bang.

UNI got a career-high 32 points from Kwadzo Ahelegbe and shot nearly 65 percent overall during an 81-69 defeat of Boston College that gave the Panthers a 2-1 record in the highly competitive tournament.

"That was the best 40 minutes we've put together so far this year," said UNI head coach Ben Jacobson, whose team improved to 3-1. "We had fewer mistakes at the defensive end of the floor, and our offense was going pretty good the entire 40 minutes."

That offense was in good hands with Ahelegbe at the point. The junior from Oakdale, Minn., made 14 of 17 field goal attempts, including all three of his 3-point tries, and handed out four assists.

"He just had really good control of our team," said Jacobson. "He had a great feel for the flow of this game. He got some things at the rim, he made some pull-up jump shots, he knocked in a couple of 3s ... It was just one of those games where things were really going well for him.

"What I liked most about it, not at any time did he take a quick shot or a shot that didn't really feel right for our offense. He was really in tune with the way the game was being played."

UNI got off to a strong start, building a 10-point lead in the first half before the Eagles (3-2) charged back behind their strong presence on the offensive glass. Boston College, which returns a veteran team that played in last year's NCAA Tournament, finished with 14 second-chance rebounds for the game.

"That's what they do, and they were able to do that for the last 15 minutes of the first half," said Jacobson. "Our offense, fortunately, continued to be good. We were able to score with them, but we had a hard time stopping them."

The Panthers tightened up their defense in the second half, battled harder on the backboards down the stretch and continued to make their offensive possessions count. UNI had just five turnovers in the game.

"In a game where we were going to really be challenged when it came to rebounding, we needed to make it up somewhere," said Jacobson. "Fortunately, we did a great job taking care of the basketball. That was an area where we were able to pick up some possessions."

UNI also got solid production from its front line where Adam Koch and Jordan Eglseder contributed 14 and 13 points, respectively. Meanwhile, the Panthers' bench chipped in 18 points and got quality minutes again from freshmen Marc Sonnen (five points), Anthony James (two points) and Jake Koch (two points).

"I like how those three freshmen played in all three games," said Jacobson.

Overall, it was a productive trip for a UNI team with high expectations this season.

"When we took this tournament, we knew we'd be playing against quality teams," said Jacobson. "The thing I like about the way we played is we played better against East Carolina than we did against DePaul, then we played our best overall game against Boston College. We made some real improvement."

NOTES: Tipoff for Saturday's game against Northern Illinois has been set for 7:05 p.m. at the McLeod Center. The game will be televised on CFU cable channel 15.

N. Iowa           Mn   FG-A   FT-A   Rb As PF TP

A. Koch             26    6-10     2-3     2  1  1  14

Eglseder           18    6-10    1-2      5  0  4  13

Farokhmanesh 19     1-1      0-0     1  0  4  2

Ahelegbe          35   14-17    1-2     2  4  1  32

Moran               16    1-3       0-0     2  1  4  2

J. Koch              14    1-1       0-1     3  1  1  2

Dunham            25    0-2       1-2     0  2  2  1

Sonnen             20    2-3       0-0     1  0  2  5

O'Rear               22    3-5       1-2     2  2  3  8

James                  5    1-2       0-0     0  0  1  2

Team                                                2

Totals              200   35-54  6-12     20 11 23 81

Boston College  Mn   FG-A    FT-A    Rb  As  PF  TP

Raji                     28    7-13      4-5       5  0  3  18

Trapani               36      3-7      2-3       7  2  3  11

Southern            19      4-6      4-4       4  0  4  12

Jackson              35      4-9       0-1      6  4  3  8

Paris                   36      0-4       2-2      2  4  1  2

Roche                  21      2-5      4-4      2  0  1  8

Ravenel                 5      3-3      1-1      0  0  1  7

Elmore                   5      0-1     0-0       0  0  0  0

Dunn                    15     1-2     1-1       1  0  3  3

Team                                                   4

Totals                   200 24-50 18-21 31 10 19 69

Northern Iowa      38 43 - 81

Boston College 41 28 - 69

3-point goals - Northern Iowa 5-9 (A. Koch 0-1, Eglseder 0-1, Ahelegbe 3-3, Moran 0-1, Sonnen 1-2, O'Rear 1-1); Boston College 3-12 (Raji 0-2, Trapani 3-3, Jackson 0-3, Paris 0-1, Roche 0-2, Elmore 0-1). Blocks - Northern Iowa 1 (J. Koch); Boston College 0. Steals - Northern Iowa 5 (Ahelegbe 2); Boston College 2 (Jackson 2).

Officials - Boroski, Ebersole, Dawkins. Att. - 531.