Dent leads Northern Illinois against Ohio after 21-point showing

Northern Illinois Huskies (4-10, 0-2 MAC) at Ohio Bobcats (8-6, 2-0 MAC)

Athens, Ohio; Saturday, 1 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Northern Illinois visits Ohio after James Dent Jr. scored 21 points in Northern Illinois' 68-50 loss to the Kent State Golden Flashes.

The Bobcats are 5-0 in home games. Ohio has a 3-6 record against teams over .500.

The Huskies have gone 0-2 against MAC opponents. Northern Illinois allows 74.0 points to opponents and has been outscored by 3.0 points per game.

Ohio makes 46.8% of its shots from the field this season, which is 3.2 percentage points higher than Northern Illinois has allowed to its opponents (43.6%). Northern Illinois averages 8.7 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.3 more made shots on average than the 7.4 per game Ohio allows.

The matchup Saturday is the first meeting of the season for the two teams in conference play.

TOP PERFORMERS: Jackson Paveletzke is averaging 11.4 points and 5.7 assists for the Bobcats.

Quentin Jones is shooting 43.4% and averaging 15.1 points for the Huskies.

LAST 10 GAMES: Bobcats: 7-3, averaging 79.9 points, 31.5 rebounds, 16.7 assists, 8.6 steals and 3.6 blocks per game while shooting 47.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 69.7 points per game.

Huskies: 2-8, averaging 68.5 points, 29.8 rebounds, 12.8 assists, 7.0 steals and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 37.8% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 77.7 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

The Associated Press