Ohio proved that all good things must end by snapping the NIU men’s basketball team’s four-game winning streak with a 78-67 win Thursday night.

A sloppy start marred by four early turnovers and the absence of leading scorer James Hughes forced NIU to play catchup for the remainder of the game.

“We had done well in the turnover department,” NIU coach Rob Judson said. “We had 10 or less in the last three games, but the first half made the difference. We had to continually try to come back.”

Playing without Hughes, who missed the game due to a lingering injury suffered against Western Michigan, Judson said he liked the way his team competed, and noted that Ohio’s hot 18-of-19 free-throw shooting led to the 11 point loss.

“James wasn’t able to go,” Judson said. “He had been doing a good job, and him not being there was a big loss for us, but we fought hard and competed really hard all game.”

A layup by Cory Sims with 2:47 left in the game cut the Ohio lead to 68-63. But that’s as close as NIU would get, with Ohio converting 6-of-6 free throw attempts down the stretch. Sims posted a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Ohio was led in scoring by Leon Williams with 20 points. A 9-0 run from Antonio Chatman to start the second half stretched Ohio’s five point half-time advantage to 12.

Todd Peterson led NIU in scoring with 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds.

The leaders of both MAC divisions will square off when West-leading NIU heads to East-leading Kent State for an 11 a.m. tilt Sunday.

On Jan. 21, Kent State left DeKalb with an 11-point victory over NIU, powered by Jay Youngblood’s 27 points.

“We have to prevent Youngblood from rebounding on the offensive boards,” Judson said. “He gets to a lot of loose balls, and we need to play better on-the-ball defense against him.”

Kent State lost 60-44 to Toledo Tuesday. The 44 points is a season low point total for Kent State, which had won three in a row. Judson said his team has its work cut out for it with its crossover schedule.

“When the schedule came out,” Judson said. “We knew these two road games back to back [Ohio and Kent] would be tough. The schedule has us playing these two tough teams twice this year.”