The Polar Bears improve to 10-3 overall, 5-2 in OAC play, while the Cardinals fall to 1-6 in the OAC and 5-9 overall.
Junior Greg Badenhop dropped 25 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead the Bears.
Senior Nate Lied added 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range.
Adding to the rebound total for ONU, junior Bart Hostetler grabbed eight boards.
The Cardinals were led by Tyler Ousley’s career-high 27 points and 11 rebounds.
A layup by junior Mike Hunter with 3:59 left in the game gave the Polar Bears their biggest lead of the game, 77-57.
Otterbein scored the first four points of the game, but a three-pointer by Badenhop put the Bears ahead 7-6. The teams traded baskets until another Badenhop three-pointer started a 9-0 run by the Bears and pushing the lead to 19-10, with 13:21 left in the first half.
Otterbein was able to tie the game at 21 apiece on an Ousley dunk with 11:19 left, but the Bears answered with sophomore Kyle Gehle’s three-pointer and the Bears went ahead 24-21 and never relinquished the lead.
Badenhop again hit a three-pointer to send ONU to the locker room at intermission with a 48-38 lead.
“This was a nice win on the road for us,” said Northern head coach Jeff Coleman. “We really shot the ball well in the first half, then and we really got after them defensively in the second half.”
ONU shot 50.9 percent (29-of-57) from the floor, while the Cardinals hit 41.1 percent (23-for-56) of their shots.
The rebound advantage went to ONU, with 40 compared to Otterbein’s 29.
Northern shot 18-of 28 for 64.3 percent along with hitting 71.4 percent (10-of-14) from behind the three-point line in the first half.
The Polar Bears return to action Saturday afternoon as they host Heidelberg for a 3 pm tip-off at the ONU Sports Center.