Sports
Bobcats Fall to Huskies in First MAC Contest of Season
By: Mitchell Lyons
Posted on:
Ohio’s five-game winning streak was snapped in Wednesday’s 80-69 road loss to NIU.
With 10:40 to go in the second half, redshirt senior Treg Setty hit a three-pointer to give the Bobcats a 53-52 lead, but that was the last lead the team saw in the game. One minute later, Aaric Armstead completed a three-point-play, giving the Huskies the 55-53 lead. From that point on Ohio made just three field goals, two from redshirt sophomore Jaaron Simmons and one from Setty. The rest of Ohio’s points came from the foul line.
Armstead’s and-one started a 6-0 NIU run and forced Bobcat head coach Saul Phillips to call a time out, down 61-54. The timeout did not do much for the Bobcats. The two teams traded the next eight points and Ohio trailed 65-58. NIU hit its free throws down the stretch and picked up its first win of conference play.
The difference in the second half was that Northern Illinois attempted 24 free throws and made 20 of them, while Ohio attempted just 17 and made 15. One area Phillips has been working on is trying to take better care of the ball. Coming into the game today Ohio averaged 14 turnover per contest. That number will go down, having only four in the ballgame. Ohio forced 13 NIU turnovers, which led to 21 points for Ohio.
Simmons led Ohio with 19 points and four assists. Setty and Kaminski had 15 each. With junior Antonio Campbell in foul trouble for most of the game, junior Wadly Mompremier gave Ohio good minutes and had six points and eight rebounds.
The loss drops Ohio’s record to 9-4 overall and 0-1 in conference play. The Bobcats will face Ball State at home on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.