Paul Jesperson led all scorers with 18 points, including seven of Northern Iowa’s last nine, and the Washington State men’s basketball team made too many mistakes to knock off the giant-slaying UNI Panthers Wednesday in the second round of the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.

The Cougars (7-4) committed eleven more turnovers, 12 more fouls and shot 18 fewer free throws than the Panthers (8-4), which resulted in the 63-59 defeat at the Stan Sheriff Center in Honolulu.

In a game that had 19 lead changes and 10 ties, UNI couldn’t claim the lead for good until senior guard Wes Washpun knocked down a pair of free throws with 3:51 to play to give Northern Iowa the 54-53 lead. Washpun went on to score 16 points, and he and senior guard Jesperson combined to score the Panther’s last 15 points of the game over the last 6 minutes. The duo outscored the Cougars 11-6 in the final 4 minutes of the game.

Three-point shooting kept the Cougars in it until the closing minutes, as timely double-teams by the Panther defense forced the Cougars to respond from the perimeter, which – for the most part – they did, going 7-19 (36.8 percent) from 3-point range.

WSU sophomore forward Derrien King knocked down a pair of 3-pointers en route to tie his season-high 10 points, and junior forward Josh Hawkinson quietly put together another outstanding game, leading the team in scoring with 14 points and pulling down 13 rebounds to pick up his sixth straight double-double; his eighth of the season.

The Cougars rolled out to a 5-0 lead to start the game, but that was the largest lead either team would claim in a first half that ended with UNI up 30-29. A 10-3 run by WSU to start the second half gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game, 39-33. Hawkinson grabbed three rebounds and scored four points in that nearly five-minute long stretch.

Within the first few minutes of the contest, two of the more athletic players on the floor announced their respective presences in consecutive exchanges on UNI’s offensive end of the court. UNI’s Washpun threw down a two-handed dunk over WSU junior center Valentine Izundu with 17:26 to go in the first half to cut WSU’s lead to 5-4. However, on the next drive down the floor, Izundu would not be beaten again as he emphatically swatted away Washpun’s layup on the right side of the hoop.

WSU will try to avoid going winless at the Diamond Head Classic at 10 a.m. Friday against New Mexico. ESPN3 will broadcast the seventh place game.

Reporting by Dustin Brennan