DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's basketball team fell to Ohio, 80-59, on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 24) at the NIU Convocation Center. David Coit (Columbus, N.J./Atlantic Cape CC) scored a game-high 27 points and Will Lovings-Watts (Jeffersonville, Ind./Putnam Science) chipped in 10. 

Ohio led by eight at the intermission before shooting 65.4 percent (17-of-26) from the field in the second half to extend its advantage. 

"This was a microcosm of the season," said NIU head coach Rashon Burno. "I thought we had the right intentions for the first 8-12 minutes of the game and then fatigue sets in and when you have a depleted bench you can't really go to your bench for guard substitutions. That really put us in a tough spot, but we have been playing injured for a large part of the year."

NIU (9-18, 3-11 MAC) and Ohio went back-and-forth over the opening 12 minutes of the contest as the game was tied five times and had five lead changes. The Huskies trailed by a pair, 17-15, before back-to-back buckets from Coit and Xavier Amos (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) gave the hosts a 19-17 lead with 8:31 to play. 

Ohio (15-12, 9-5 MAC) answered back with the next 11 points as the Bobcats took a 28-19 lead with just under six minutes to play before the break. 

The Bobcat lead grew to as much as 11 before Zion Russell (Upper Marlboro, Md./National Christian Academy) closed the half with an old-fashioned three-point play to trim the deficit to 34-26 at the half. 

Coit led all scorers with 11 points in the opening 20 minutes, Miles Brown had eight to pace the Bobcats.

Ohio then opened the second half on a 9-0 run as the Bobcats took a 43-26 lead inside the opening three minutes of the second stanza. 

The visitors would remain in control the rest of the way as they shot 46.2 percent (6-of-13) from three in the second half, to go along with their 65.4 percent shooting from the field. 

Brown and Aidan Hadaway each scored 17 points to lead the way for Ohio. Shereef Mitchell added 14 points while AJ Clayton scored 10 for the Bobcats. All 11 players that played for Ohio scored at least one point. 

NIU heads on the road for three of the final four to end the regular season, beginning this week with trips to Toledo on Tuesday (Feb. 27) and Akron on Saturday (March 2).