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The Niagara women’s basketball team heads out on the road to start its longest road-trip of the season starting with Thursday’s game against the Iona Gaels at the Hynes Athletic Center.
   
The Purple Eagles (8-9, 3-3 MAAC) will look to split the season series with the Iona Gaels (9-8, 4-2 MAAC).  With a win, Niagara would also move into a tie with the Gaels for third place in the conference.  The teams split the series last season with both teams winning on the road.
   
Niagara is led into action with a pair of redshirt-juniors. Lauren Gatto has a team-high 14.0 ppg and Kayla Stroman is second with 8.4 ppg. Freshman Sylvia Maxwell has started the last five games and had a breakthrough performance against Marist.  She set career-highs with 11 points and five field goals. 
 
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Fans can follow all the action live on PurpleEagles.com via live stats.
 
Last Time Out
Despite a sizeable run in the second half, the Niagara Purple Eagles dropped their Sunday matinee against the Marist Red Foxes 71-51 at the Gallagher Center.
  
The Purple Eagles (8-9, 3-3 MAAC) found themselves trailing the Red Foxes (11-6, 6-0 MAAC) by 18 points, 43-25, with 14 minutes to play in the game.  Meghan McGuinness scored five points on two-consecutive baskets to get her squad rolling and a layup by Stroman off of a steal bookended the 18-2 run that brought NU back with a basket, 45-43.
  
Gatto scored three of her team-high 12 points during the run; the redshirt-junior finished the game 5-for-9 from the floor and 2-for-3 from the free-throw line.  Jess Flamm contributed eight points to the run.
  
Niagara was able to stay close until it was forced to foul down the stretch and Marist pulled away with a 71-51 win.
 
On The Court: Iona Gaels (9-8, 4-2 MAAC)
The Gaels enter Thursday’s matchup with a 1-2 record in their last three games.  They began the MAAC season with three-straight wins over Niagara, Canisius, and Manhattan before dropping two-in-a-row to Marist and Fairfield.  They are coming off of a win against Saint Peter’s.

They have a 4-2 home record this season with only one of those losses coming in conference (last weekend’s loss to Fairfield).  They defeated Navy, Colgate, Manhattan, and Saint Peter’s on the Hynes Athletic Center court.
   
Sophomore Damika Martinez still leads the way for Iona, scoring 17.0 ppg and bringing in 5.4 rpg.  Freshman Joy Adams is also making an impact with 13.1 ppg and a team-high 9.4 rpg.  Adams is fifth in the MAAC in conference scoring with 15.8 ppg in MAAC games.
 
Against the Gaels (Niagara leads 26-23)
Niagara dropped the first game of the season series earlier this month.  The Purple Eagles did enjoy some success against Iona, winning 12-of-14 games until 2006.  They snapped a 14-game losing streak last season with their 68-55 win.
 
Road Trip
The Purple Eagles are heading out on their longest road trip of the season, playing four-consecutive games away from the Gallagher Center against Iona, Canisius, Loyola, and Rider.  This is the only trip this season longer than two games and will complete a stretch where Niagara plays 6-of-8 games on the road.
 
Righting The Ship
Niagara has yet to lose two games in a row during the MAAC season.  It has come back and won each game following a loss. 
 
Riding The Bench
In all three of Niagara’s MAAC victories it has relied on bench scoring.  NU’s bench outscored Siena’s 38-1 in a game where four players had double-digit points.  The Purple Eagles’ bench outscored its opponent 27-2 against SPU and 28-15 against Rider. 
 
Taking Care Of The Ball
The Purple Eagles are 7-4 this season when the turnover numbers are even or in their favor.  They are 1-5 when they commit more turnovers than their opponents.
 
Success Against The Gaels
Kayla Stroman has hit double-digit points in her last three meetings against Iona, averaging 11.3 ppg in those contests.  She has also averaged three assists in those games.
   
Lauren Gatto has also found recent success against the conference rival, scoring 10 points in last season’s win before scoring 22 this season to bring her average to 16.0 ppg in the last two matchups.
   
Fellow junior Chanel Johnson has scored over 10 points in three of five career meetings with Iona and has a career average of 9.0 ppg in those five games.
 
The Best Defense Is...A Good Defense?
In MAAC games, Niagara is third in field goal percentage and three-point field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to only 36.5 percent of their chances overall and 25.8 percent from beyond the arc.  It is also third in assist/turnover ratio with a 0.9, slightly behind Marist’s 1.1.