Every win counts the same in the standings, but a single-digit win against a two-win Northern Illinois team might not have been the outcome the Bobcats desired.
Ohio (18-4, 6-2 Mid-American Conference) led by 20 points with just more than six minutes to play in the game but was outscored 20-9 in the final 6:11 as the Bobcats defeated the Huskies 67-58.
Ohio came into the game in search of its first road win of conference play, but a sluggish start hindered the team early on.
The Bobcats trailed by as many as seven points in the first half before taking a 27-26 lead into the break.
“I’m going to give (Northern Illinois) a lot of credit,” Ohio coach John Groce said. “They played really well in the first half, and I thought they were the tougher team for the bulk of it.”
The Bobcats came out strong in the second half and led by double digits until the Huskies (2-18, 1-7 MAC) were able to narrow the gap with less than three minutes to play.
“I thought the first 14 minutes of the second half, we were terrific,” Groce said. “In the last six, we weren’t very good. We were very sporadic throughout the game, but we’re thrilled to go to 6-2.”
The Huskies’ sharp 3-point shooting kept them in the game early on, as they knocked down four of their first eight attempts, despite a season average of 30 percent from behind the arc.
Ten first-half turnovers also slowed down Ohio’s attack.
But Ohio dominated the last 10 minutes of the first half and the first 10 of the second. They outscored Northern Illinois 33-19 during that span.
The Huskies started to look more like a two-win team, and the Bobcats started to heat up from 3-point territory.
Nick Kellogg, Walter Offutt and Stevie Taylor combined to make seven of 11 3-point attempts, but Ohio could not slam the door on its opponent.
“We’ve got to play hard for 40 minutes,” Offutt said. “When you have a team down, keep them down. That’s what great teams do.”
Offutt scored a game-high 19 points to lead Ohio, while forward Reggie Keely added 13 points off the bench.
Antone Christian led the Huskies with 15 points and made three of seven 3-point attempts. Christian came into the game averaging fewer than five points per game.
Ohio point guard D.J. Cooper managed only four points while playing in front of a personal cheering section that made the trip from his hometown of Chicago.
Northern Illinois had lost each of its past four games by 10 or more points, but Groce said he was not concerned with the final score.
“I just wanted to play better,” he said. “We got really tentative. We have to continue to be aggressive. I thought we were really soft on the defensive end in the last six minutes of the game.”
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