SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - During the University of Northern Iowa's first dozen basketball games, it was almost a given someone from the opposing team would go off for a big night.

Iowa State's Craig Brackins torched the Panthers for 32 points. Texas Southern's Matthew Miller poured in 28. Illinois-Chicago's Josh Mayo exploded for 27. Indiana State's Harry Marshall had 23. And so on.

Lately, it's become big news when a marquee player just scores against UNI's defense.

In the past 12 days, the Panthers have stymied Evansville's Shy Ely, Drake's Josh Young and Bradley's Theron Wilson - three of the Missouri Valley Conference's top seven scorers.

They managed a combined 10 points against UNI.

"Our team defense has improved so much," said freshman Johnny Moran, whose Panthers take on Missouri State at the new JQH Arena at 6:05 p.m. today in a game televised by ESPNU. "We have trust in each other. When someone gets beat, we know somone else will be there to cover up."

Ely, the league's top scorer, missed his first 13 shots versus UNI on Jan. 13 and didn't make a field goal until less than 2 1/2 minutes remained.

Young didn't get off a shot in the opening half and finished with no field goals, three turnovers and four fouls.

Wilson, who was coming off a 22-point, 16-rebound effort at Southern Illinois, was held scoreless for the first time in his Bradley career.

"It's not one individual, but all of us are doing a great job of helping each other out," sophomore point guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe said. "We're doing a great job of taking a couple things away from teams."

UNI head coach Ben Jacobson said his team is paying better attention to detail, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. During its current seven-game win streak, UNI (13-6, 7-1 MVC) is holding opponents to 57.4 points per contest and 38 percent shooting.

In Valley games, the Panthers rank first in scoring defense and second in field goal percentage defense.

"For a long time, everything I talked about in terms of terminology and scouting took a lot of thought," Jacobson said. "Now, we have enough experiences that they don't have to think about as many things. They can just go out there and play."

The Panthers have been much more aggressive, often frustrating the other team's signature player.

"It's more Coach Jake telling us to have that mindset with certain players," Ahelegbe said. "If somebody is physical with you and never letting you get to the spot where you want to get, it's difficult to get in a flow offensively."

UNI will have another challenge on its hands tonight in senior Chris Cooks. The 6-foot-4 senior, who had 16 points in the previous meeting 15 days ago, has scored 77 points in the past four games. The versatile forward posted a career-high 23 versus Wichita State recently.

"We're going to have to do a good job on him," Jacobson said, "but the rest of their team concerns me just as much. If we don't do a great job on Cooks, we're going to have a hard time. If we don't do a great job on the rest of their team, we're going to have a hard time.

"We have to find a way to balance it like we've done."

Numbers aside, Ahelegbe believes UNI can be better.

"We still have lulls here and there," he said. "We watch film enough that we still have a bunch of mistakes, so we can't be too full of ourselves or excited."

Still, it's a vast improvement from November and December when seven of UNI's first 12 opponents shot 45 percent or better from the field. Nobody has reached that percentage against the Panthers since Dec. 28.

"Defense is the biggest reason for where we're at right now," Moran said. "The intensity and communication is so much better than it was a month ago."

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