Swooping In On The Bearcats
The Purple Eagles will try and earn a split on their road trip when they take on the Binghamton Bearcats in Binghamton, N.Y. on Monday night.. 
   
The Purple Eagles (3-4), who have a 1-2 record on the road so far this season, have had recent success against the Bearcats (1-8).  They were coming off of a loss heading into last season’s meeting and were able to come out with an 11-point victory, 63-49.
 
Binghamton won the first-ever game between NU and BU and head into Monday Night’s game coming off a 65-60 win over Buffalo, its first victory of the season.  The Bearcats are still looking for their first win at home this year, currently sitting at 0-3 with two of the losses coming to MAAC teams (Siena and Canisius)
 
How to Tune In
Fans can follow all of Saturday’s action on PurpleEagles.com.
 
Last Time Out...
The Purple Eagles led throughout most of the first half and were within striking distance for most of the second but were eventually edged by the Lehigh Mountain Hawks 72-49 on Saturday night at the Stabler Arena.
  
Coming out of the break Niagara was able to stay right on Lehigh’s heels, cutting the lead to two points, 29-27, with a Meghan McGuinness three-pointer.  Four minutes later a three-pointer from Kayla Stroman cut the deficit to three, 35-32.  That was as close as they would get but Niagara stayed within single-digits until just under 10 minutes left in regulation when Lehigh pulled away.
 
On The Court: Binghamton Bearcats (1-8, 0-0 America East)
The Bearcats began the season dropping their first eight games, three of which were decided by four points or less.  The losses to Cornell (60-56), Austin Peay (71-67), and UNLV (58-56) were all decided by two-possessions or less.  Binghamton won its first game on Saturday when it beat Buffalo 65-60.
  
The team is led by sophomore forward Sherae Swinson’s 10.0 ppg and junior guard Jasbriell Swain’s 7.4 rpg.
 
Against the Bearcats (Niagara leads 2-1)
This will be the fourth matchup between these two teams in the last five seasons.  Niagara won the last two meetings 57-52 and 64-53.

Against the America East Conference
Niagara has played six of the nine teams that make up the present day America East.  Coming into Monday’s game with a 7-6 record against the conference, there are only two teams Niagara has played that they have yet to beat (Albany and BU).  They have at least one win against the other programs they’ve faced.

Favorable match-up
After dropping the first game against the Bearcats 83-65, the Purple Eagles won the next two meetings.  The first win came on the road in 2009, 57-52, and the second came last season at home, 63-53.
 
Looking For A Big Game
Kayla Stroman, who is averaging 8.4 ppg this season, has had success against the Bearcats.  In her freshman season she scored  14 points in the Niagara victory and last season she put up 19 points to bring her average to 16.5 ppg against Binghamton.
 
This Is 300
Lauren Gatto pulled down three rebounds against Lehigh to get to 300 for her career.  She is the leading rebounder on this Purple Eagles team, with Kayla Stroman in second with 252.