CEDAR FALLS - The Virgin Islands, with their sun, sand and balmy weather, were a nice novelty last week.

But the McLeod Center has a familiar, coziness about it that the Northern Iowa Panthers are never eager to stray too far from.

Ben Jacobson and the UNI men got reacquainted with their on-campus crowd Saturday -- and they needed all the support they could get in a too-close-for-comfort, 52-45 win over Northern Illinois in the home opener.

The Panthers won a pair of games in last week's Paradise Jam, including an eye-opening, 12-point triumph over Boston College of the ACC. But the roughly 7,000-seat McLeod Center, where it won 11 games last season, is usually UNI's true comfort zone.

But the Panthers (4-1) had to sweat out virtually every second of this showdown. However, Adam Koch's 15 points helped put UNI over the top and etch another mark in the win column.

Rebounding and free-throw shooting had been two worrisome stat-categories for UNI entering the weekend, and they both reared their ugly head against Northern Illinois.

The Panthers had averaged three less boards than their opponents entering Saturday night, and they watched the visiting Huskies pull down double-digit offensive caroms in the second half.

UNI also did little to augment its 64.8 team free-throw percentage against NIU, as it regularly made just one of two free throws during late-game trips to the charity stripe. Northern Illinois, by the way, shot 49.2 percent from the charity stripe in its first three games this season, so it served as an apt opponent on this evening.

The hosts tried to push the ball in transition early, but shots weren't falling from the perimeter. The Panthers connected on just 20 percent of their first-half 3-point attempts (2-for-10).

As a result, the visitors were very much in the ballgame, trailing by just two with barely eight minutes remaining.

Panther fans had to stand at length as they waited for UNI's first bucket of the second half. UNI missed its first 12 second-half field-goal attempts, and was held scoreless for the first 9 minutes, 36 seconds of the second stanza.

Jacobson was visibly upset with his players during a subsequent timeout.

Finally, back-to-back 3-pointers by Adam Koch with barely seven minutes remaining resuscitated UNI's offense.

Northern Illinois (1-4) played without its leading scorer, Colorado transfer Xavier Silas, due to a right hand injury the swing man endured recently. The Huskies, led by former Colorado coach Ricardo Patton, had trouble shooting as a result.

Thus, the Panthers continued their forward momentum leading up to an intrastate scrum with another solid squad -- Iowa State -- Wednesday night in Ames. Last year the Cyclones nipped the Panthers, 71-66, in an overtime thriller.