GAME NOTES: The first-ever meeting between the Northern Iowa Panthers and the Virginia Tech Hokies is set for Tuesday in the semifinal round of the 2014 Cancun Challenge.

The Panthers are off to a 4-0 start for the first time since the 2007-08 campaign and will be aiming to make it five wins in a row out of the gate for just the third time since the program joined the Division I ranks. The most recent victory for Northern Iowa came three days ago when the squad dismissed North Florida at home, 66-49, which means three of the wins for the Panthers have been decided by double figures.

As for the Hokies, they opened the 2014-15 campaign with consecutive wins over Maryland-Eastern Shore and Liberty, but over the weekend the team was tripped up by Appalachian State in a 65-63 final.

Both teams will be back in action on Wednesday, with the winner taking on the survivor of the Miami-Ohio/Northwestern battle for the title, while the losers also square off in the championship round.

Northern Iowa's defensive effort against the Ospreys in the last outing was certainly impressive, but not quite unforeseen since the Panthers have held 31 opponents under 50 points during the Ben Jacobson coaching error and the team has won all but one of those contests. Seth Tuttle, who has been a mainstay in the starting lineup for his entire career, accounted for a team-best 19 points as he shot a perfect 7-of-7 from the floor and 4-of-4 at the free-throw line, followed by Paul Jesperson and Wes Washpun with 11 and 10 points, respectively, off the bench.

Tuttle not only leads the Panthers in scoring with 17.0 ppg, he is doing it in fine fashion as he converts field goals at a staggering 74.2 percent clip. Add in Washpun (12.0 ppg), the only other double-digit scorer for a team producing 70.5 ppg, and his 76.2 percent shooting from the field makes the pair one of the best shooting duos in the nation, even though the team as a whole is coming in at only 49.2 percent through four games.

The Hokies had their game against ASU knotted at 63-63 with only seconds to play, but the squad allowed a layup with about two seconds to go and then missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer as time expired. Virginia Tech had three players barely score in double figures as Adam Smith dropped in 11 points, while both Justin Bibbs and Devin Wilson contributed 10 points apiece in the losing cause. The Hokies could have easily come out on top if they hadn't shot just 10-of-18 at the free-throw line and 3-of-17 beyond the arc.

With the team scoring 69.0 ppg, one would think that there would be a host of double-digit scorers to choose from on the Hokies bench, but in reality there are only Bibbs (11.7 ppg) and Smith (10.3 ppg) who are leading a very balanced offensive charge for the program under Buzz Williams. Defensively, VaTech has managed to hold the competition to only 58.0 ppg on 37.9 percent shooting from the field, but those opponents are still winning the rebounding battle on the average by 7.3 rpg.

Both of these teams lean on their defenses to get them into the win column, so don't be surprised if each side is held below 50 points, although the Panthers should do a little better than that as they claim the win.