It was the kind of loss that can crush a fragile program and the kind of loss Northern Iowa had become accustomed to suffering.
The underdog Panthers were clinging to a four-point lead with two minutes left last season at Missouri Valley power Creighton. The Bluejays hit back-to-back 3s, and Northern Iowa responded by missing a game-tying layup with 20 seconds left and tossing away an inbounds pass 13 seconds later.
The Panthers wound up blowing an 18-point lead and lost 62-58. They now point to that miserable night in Omaha as the moment they started overcoming a long, long stretch of adversity.
''For a team to move forward, you undoubtedly have to come together. After that loss, it took both our coaching staff and our entire team coming together and saying, 'You know what? We're going to step forward from this,''' junior guard Jacqui Kalin said. ''We weren't going let that define us.''
Northern Iowa finished 2009-10 with an unexpected flourish that included two wins over Creighton and the program's first NCAA tournament bid.
This year, the Panthers have grown from a team on a nice little run to a program on the rise.
Northern Iowa (24-5, 17-1) has won 16 straight games - by far the longest streak in school history - and are the heavy favorites to repeat as conference champions at this year's tournament in St. Charles, Mo.
The Panthers, who won the regular-season title for the first time this year, start quarterfinal play on Friday. But even if they don't win the tournament, they'd be in the discussion for the first at-large NCAA bid given to a Valley team since 2002. As of Monday, they have an RPI of 40.
The Panthers have blossomed into the type of team coach Tanya Warren envisioned when she took over before the 2007-08 season.
Northern Iowa is an experienced, balanced and deep unit led by first-team All-Valley picks Kalin and center Lizzie Boeck.
Kalin is averaging a team-high 15.1 points per game, 92.1 percent shooting from the free-throw line and has one of the nation's best assist-to-turnover ratio. Boeck's been a force in the paint, with 13.5 points a game and 7.8 rebounds, while Rachel Madrigal and Katelin Oney have combined for 78 3-pointers.
The Panthers are also holding teams to just 36 percent shooting and outscoring them by 14.5 points per game.
''Across the board, we're extremely balanced on the offensive end. I think you can put a price tag on experience,'' Warren said. ''Defensively, they've really bought into the fact that good defense creates good offense.''
They were humbled by top-seeded Nebraska 83-44 in the first round of last year's NCAA tournament, but the Panthers felt emboldened enough by their late-season surge to stick around campus for the summer. The team worked out together and spent plenty of time together outside the gym.
Kalin and Boeck said all that time helped.
''We don't get catty with each other. We don't fight with each other on the court. Now, don't get me wrong, we have our arguments,'' Boeck said. ''We do a great job of building each other up ... we have each other's back.''
Northern Iowa lost three of four earlier this season, including home games to Iowa State and Northern Illinois - a team the Panthers should have probably handled easily. They bounced back with four wins in a row and haven't lost at all since falling at Illinois State on New Year's Day.
The turning point in the program's record-setting season came 14 months ago in Omaha.
''When things went wrong, they went wrong. We were unable to spin out of it,'' Warren said. ''This year, this team has learned to respond instead of react. I think that's the biggest difference.''
