MAC Men's Basketball Daily (12-14-11)
MAC Men's Basketball Daily - Wednesday, December 14
Marietta (6-1, 2-1 OAC) at Ohio (7-1, 0-0 MAC)
7 p.m. • Ohio leads series 73-18
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• The Bobcats have the No. 22 RPI in the nation and play at home on Wednesday against Marietta College. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. Ohio then heads back on the road for games at Wright State and Northern Iowa before welcoming North Carolina A&T before Christmas. D.J. Cooper was named the MAC East Player of the Week for the first time this season and sixth of his career. Cooper ranks ninth nationally in assists, 15th in steals and against Portland recorded the first triple-double of his career. The win over Portland on Saturday was the third true road win of the season for the Bobcats. The last team to accomplish that feat this early in the season was the 1960-61 season that won a trio of games by December 14. Ohio also won a game in the Pacific Time Zone for the second-straight year after topping Santa Clara in the Las Vegas Invitational last season. It was the first win on the west coast for the ‘Cats since beating Cal-State Northridge in 1996...The No. 10 ranked Marietta College men’s basketball team defeated Otterbein University by the score of 77-69 Saturday (Dec. 10) evening in an Ohio Athletic Conference match-up. Kevin Knab leads the Pioneers in scoring with 17.4 ppg.
DePaul (6-3, 0-0 Big East) at Northern Illinois (0-8, 0-0 MAC)
9 p.m. • DePaul leads series 23-6
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• Northern Illinois opens a five-game home stand on Wednesday night when it hosts DePaul at the NIU Convocation Center. NIU’s matchup with DePaul is one of five non-conference games against schools in the State of Illinois. The Huskies are playing the middle game of a three-game stretch against Land of Lincoln foes, having last played at UIC (Dec. 10) and with a meeting against Southern Illinois (Dec. 17) up next. The Huskies have been doing an excellent job taking care of the basketball in the last three games. After averaging over 21 turnovers per game in the first five games of the season, NIU has turned it over just 28 total times in the last three contests, an average of 9.3 per game...The Blue Demons come to DeKalb with a 6-3 record; DePaul is currently on a two-game win streak having beaten Loyola-Chicago and Chicago State in their last two contests. Cleveland Melvin leads the way for DePaul averaging 19.3 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.