DeKALB, Ill. – Ohio led with seven minutes to go but Northern Illinois closed strong to take a 71-60 victory Tuesday night at The Convocation Center in DeKalb.

With the Huskies trailing 50-49, Dante Thorpe’s 3-pointer with 6:52 remaining gave his team the lead for good by sparking a 10-1 run.

Jason Carter led the Bobcats (11-9, 3-5 Mid-American Conference) with 15 points but he did not score only took one shot in the final 11 minutes. Teyvion Kirk finished with 10 points.

Thrope went 4 for 4 from long range and scored 20 points for Northern Illinois (12-9, 5-3 MAC). Eugene German had 15 points and six assists, and Levi Bradley finished with 14 points.

Northern Illinois built a 19-12 lead early in the game, but Ohio responded to tie the game at 21 on a Doug Taylor dunk. The Bobcats took a brief lead on a Connor Murrell 3-pointer with 1:23 left in the half and the teams were tied at 21 at the break. There was little separation between the teams after that until the Huskies’ late run.

Ohio struggled offensively by shooting 35.7 percent, including 5-of-26 (19.2 percent) 3-point shooting. It made just 28.6 percent in the second half. Northern Illinois shot 43.4 percent while making 6 of 15 (40 percent) 3-pointers and also went 19 of 22 at the foul line – 17 of 18 in the second half.

"Both times we played them there have been shooting number woes," Ohio coach Saul Phillips said. "At our place it was free throws. I thought a huge bulk of our shots tonight were well generated. I can't think how many time we had a shot to go up three or four and reversed the ball well and then other times we tried to penetrate. But someone has to step up and hit those shots."

Ohio hosts Akron at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at The Convo.