Northern Illinios beats Ohio in the two teams' conference opener.
Two teams met in Dekalb, Illinois on Wednesday night riding win streaks of four and five games, respectively, that were established on the backs of big men. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say those big men played a crucial role in who emerged on top Wednesday.
One big man, Northern Illinois’ Marin Maric, finished the evening with 22 points and 14 rebounds, sustaining his mark as his team’s leading scorer and leading the Huskies to a 80-69 win over the Bobcats (9-4, 0-1 Mid-American Conference) in the two teams’ first conference matchup of the season.
The other, Ohio’s Antonio Campbell, played just 13 minutes because of foul trouble, shot the ball just five times and finished with five points. Going in, Campbell averaged 14 points and close to nine rebounds per game.
The cliche goes that basketball is a game of multiple runs, but Wednesday’s matchup came down to just one.
Neither team was able to distance itself at any point in the first half, with Ohio making up for a lackluster shooting performance behind the arc by playing clean offensively. The Bobcats turned the ball over just twice in the first half and eventually finished with four all game.
Conversely, Northern Illinois (12-2, 1-0 MAC) made up for some early free throw difficulties (6-of-13 from the line at halftime) by dominating from 3-point range, hitting seven of its first 12 tries.
Both teams struggled to regain offensive footing in the early minutes of the second half, as the game slowly began to turn into a free throw contest — something that would typically benefit Ohio — who entered as the nation’s third-best free throw shooting team at 77.5 percent.
Still, up through 31 minutes into the game neither team had built a lead of more than four points at any point in the contest. That changed with Northern Illinois breaking off a 9-1 run that flipped the score from a 53-52 Bobcat advantage to a 61-54 Husky lead that looked particularly imposing with Ohio’s best inside presence mostly confined to the bench. Campbell would eventually foul out with four minutes to go in the second half.
The Bobcats were never again able to get the deficit to fewer than three points, and the Huskies buried more than enough shots late to sink Ohio’s hopes at a miracle in the final minutes.
The loss snapped Ohio’s five game winning streak going in.
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Ohio’s Jaaron Simmons turned in a 19 point performance to go with three rebounds and four assists to lead Ohio while Treg Setty and Kenny Kaminski finished with 15 points each. Wadly Mompremier grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. As a team, Ohio was outrebounded 42-27.
Ohio will return home on Jan. 9 to play Ball State in The Convo at 2 p.m.
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