With the win, its fifth in a row, the Polar Bears improve to 16-5 overall, 10-4 in the OAC, while the Muskies fall to 9-12 overall, 5-9 in the OAC.
Northern had trouble defending the backdoor cuts of Muskingum’s Princeton- style offense in the first half, as the Muskies jumped out to an early 20-9 lead with 11:55 remaining in the half on a lay-up by Tom Price.
MC pushed its lead to 40-27 with just 41 seconds remaining in the half on a lay-up by Cole Pittis, before Jim Conrad hit a field goal to make the score 40-29 in favor of the Muskies at the half.
Northern came out on fire to begin the second half, scoring the first seven points, as Sam Mikolajewski delivered a three-point play, and Billy Barkimer and Conrad each hit field goals.
The two teams traded hoops until Northern was able to take its first lead of the game at 51-49 on a three-pointer by Conrad, starting a 10-0 run by the Polar Bears.
A three by Chad Bostelman opened up a 68-55 lead for ONU with 5:08 to go that it would never relinquish.
“I’m proud of our kids, we hung in there,” Northern head coach Joe Campoli said. “We were playing with confidence in the second half.”
Muskingum shot 65 percent in the first half, but cooled off to 39 percent in the second half, finishing 26-of-49 (53 percent) for the game.
ONU shot 46 percent in the first half, and a sizzling 68 percent in the second half to finish 31-of-54 (57 percent) for the game.
Conrad led all scorers with 24 points, 18 of which came in the second half, while Sam Mikolajewski added 16 points, and Greg Badenhop had 10.
MC was led by Zach Ross who had 16 points, with 14 of them coming in the first half, while Pittis added 14 points, and Jason Trout had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Ohio Northern returns to action on Wednesday as it travels to Baldwin-Wallace for a 7:30 pm game.
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