THE BASICS

Score: Northern Illinois 70, Ohio 60

Location: Convocation Center - Athens, Ohio

The Short Story: Despite senior forward Maurice Ndour (Mbour, Senegal) recording his third double-double in the last four games, the Ohio men's basketball team (5-7, 0-1 MAC) dropped a 70-60 decision to Northern Illinois (7-5, 1-0 MAC) in the 2015 Mid-American Conference opener on Wednesday (Jan. 7) at the Convocation Center.

OHIO STARTERS: #3 Javarez Willis, #5 Maurice Ndour, #14 Ryan Taylor, #24 Mike Laster, #33 Antonio Campbell  

NORTHERN ILLINOIS STARTERS: #0 Pete Rakocevic, #23 Aaric Armstead, #33 Anthony Johnson, #52 Jordan Threloff, #55 Michael Orris

HOW IT HAPPENED 

- Ndour posted 13 points, a game-high 10 rebounds, a game-high four blocks, a team-high two steals and an assist. 

- Sophomore forward Antonio Campbell (Cincinnati, Ohio) led the Bobcats with 16 points and contributed seven rebounds, three blocks, two assists and a steal.

- Redshirt senior guard Javarez Willis (Homer, La.) added 15 points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal. 

 - Freshman guard Ryan Taylor (Gary, Ind.) added 10 points and dished out a team-high four assists.

- The Bobcats started out hot, opening the contest with an 11-2 run. The stretch was highlighted by a dunk by Ndour and a trey by Taylor.

- The Huskies countered with an 27-18 run to even the score at 29-all with just under two minutes left in the half. 

- Ohio took a 32-29 lead on a three by Willis, but sophomore guard Aaric Armstead tied the game for Northern Illinois with a triple of his own with two seconds left.

- The Huskies controlled the second half, outscoring the `Cats 38-28 and shooting 43.5 percent from the field while holding Ohio to 30 percent.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

- Ndour has recorded a team-high 10 double-figure scoring outings. He has tallied a team-high six double-doubles and a team-high seven double-digit rebounding efforts.

- Campbell has recorded five double-figure scoring efforts.

- Willis has tallied nine double-figure scoring games.

- Taylor has posted six double-figure scoring efforts.

QUOTABLE

First-Year Head Coach Saul Phillips

- "A lot of frustrating elements to the night, obviously, for me and for the players. I think the word would be - energy. We talked a lot about coming out with a lot of energy in the conference opener. For the first five minutes, we did; but for the majority of the night, they had more than we did. That's disappointing. We've got to figure out how to fix it and fix it in a hurry."

Sophomore forward Antonio Campbell

- "They had more energy than us. They came out with a little bit of energy to start the game off. They played with more energy."

Freshman guard Ryan Taylor

- "We need to come together and play. We can't let this bring us down or anything. We can't worry about this game. We need to move on."

UP NEXT

Ohio visits East Division rival Bowling Green for its first MAC road trip of 2015. Tip time is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET on Saturday (Jan. 10) at the Stroh Center.

#SaulBall