Northern Iowa 61, Northwestern 42: Tournament MVP Seth Tuttle scored 19 points and Nate Buss added 11 as the Panthers downed the Wildcats to win the Cancun Challenge Riviera Division championship.

Wyatt Lohaus had seven points, Wes Washpun added six and Matt Bohannon chipped in five for Northern Iowa, which is off to a 6-0 start for the second time in the last 52 years. The Panthers also received four points and a team-high nine rebounds from Marvin Singleton as they posted a 36-28 rebound advantage.

Freshman guard Bryant McIntosh, who scored Northwestern’s first 10 points, finished with a team-high 13 but was the only player to reach double figures for the Wildcats (5-1), who fell 13 points shy of their previous season scoring low. Alex Olah added eight points and four rebounds for Northwestern but hit only 3-of-10 shots from the field, while Scottie Lindsey had seven points and Vic Law grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.

Northern Iowa took a 31-20 lead into the second half, and Northwestern was able to trim the deficit to single digits only once at 33-24 on an Olah jumper with 17:59 left. The Wildcats did pull within 10 again at 45-35, but the Panthers scored the next seven points and never looked back.

Northwestern scored the first five points and held an 18-14 lead with 10:14 to play in the opening half. Buss, however, drained 3-pointers on back-to-back trips down the floor to ignite a 17-0 Panthers spree over the ensuing 9:40, and a Gavin Skelly bucket in the final 34 seconds was all the Wildcats scored the rest of the half.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Northern Iowa claimed its third regular-season tournament title in the last four years, adding it to the 2010 Las Vegas Classic and 2011 South Padre Island Invitational crowns. … Northwestern shot a season-low 30.2 percent from the field, including 5-of-21 from 3-point range. … The Big Ten and Missouri Valley Conference own matching 14-2 all-time Cancun Challenge records.