ATHENS, Ohio. ? The Ohio women?s basketball team rolled past Northern Illinois 71-64 in The Convo Saturday afternoon. The Bobcats were backed by a career-high 26 point effort by freshman Simone Redd, and a season-high 90.0 percent shooting from the free throw line. Ohio moved to 7-6 in the league and 11-13 overall on the season while Northern Illinois dropped to 3-10 in the MAC and 6-18 overall.

With the victory, and Miami?s win over Western Michigan, the Bobcats will host a first round MAC Tournament game on March 5. Game time has yet to be determined. Ohio last hosted a first round game in 2002, posting a 74-68 win over Bowling Green.

?I think we did a lot of good things defensively,? commented Ohio head coach Lynn Bria. ?Offensively we struggled a little bit?they doubled the post really hard and I thought they did a good job. But overall I?m really pleased with our play; we played well here in The Convo.?

Ohio, who has dropped the last four meetings with the Huskies, got out to a slow start getting down early 6-4 at 13:36 before rattling off 10 unanswered points to go up by eight, 14-6, at 8:35. Northern Illinois chipped its way back into the game, gaining a one point advantage twice, but Ohio led heading into the locker room, 32-31.

Northern Illinois took the lead right out of the break, going up by two, 34-32, in the first 30 seconds of the half. The Bobcats tied the game up on the next play and took the lead for good at 18:45 after Andrea Johnson (Columbus, Ohio) drew a foul and connected on both attempts.

Ohio earned its largest lead of the game, nine, at the five minute mark of the second half, 61-52. The two teams would go bucket-for-bucket for the remainder of the half, each adding 10 points, as the Bobcats went on to win, 71-64.

The Bobcats, who out rebounded Northern Illinois, 32-23, connected on 27-of-30 free throw attempts, with Redd hitting a career-high 9-of-10. Isbell is now tied for second on Ohio?s all-time blocked shots list with 44 after denying Raymond a chance to cut the lead to three points with seconds left on the clock.

?I thought mentally our focus there was great,? Bria noted about the teams performance from the free throw line. ?I thought it was a real advantage for us. It was probably the difference in the game.?

Nine Bobcats contributed in the scoring output, with Ciara Iglehart (Mission Viejo, Calif.) the only other player to score in double-figures with 15. Erin Isbell (Gahanna, Ohio), who pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, added nine points and Tiffany Byrd (Columbus, Ohio) added eight bench points. Quintana Ward (Park Forest, Ill.) contributed five, while Johnson, Lindsay Wight (Waynesville, Ohio), Lauren Revesz (Bridgeville, Pa.) and Kristian Kirkpatrick (Costa Mesa, Calif.) chipped in two points to round out the scoring.

?Ciara gave us a lift off the bench,? Bria said. ?Simone Redd is just going to keep getting better and better.?

Stephanie Raymond led the Huskies, netting 20 points and coming up with a game-high six steals while pulling down a team-high six boards. Mary Basic and Jamie Wilson also scored in double-figures for Northern Illinois, contributing 15 and 11, respectively.

Ohio will play two of its final three regular season contests on the road, first traveling to rival Kent State Wednesday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. Ohio will wrap-up its away slate at Ball State Saturday with game time scheduled for 3 p.m.