Game Notes | Live Stats | Live Video/Audio

The Niagara Purple Eagles come off of a 11-day break to hit the road and face the Syracuse Orange for 7:00 p.m. matchup in the Carrier Dome.
    
Meghan McGuinness, then a freshman, netted seven points and recorded four rebounds the last time the Purple Eagles (2-5) traveled to Syracuse.  This season Niagara will look to maintain the momentum of its convincing 81-70 victory over Robert Morris last week.  Led by Chanel Johnson's 20 points, four players scored in the double digits as McGuinness and Val McQuade both scored 12 and Kelly Van Leeuwen added 10 of her own.  It was the second consecutive impressive performance for Johnson, the team's lone senior.  Before her 20-point performance, she registered a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds against Kent State.
    
NU enters the matchup with a pair of players averaging over 10 points per game; McGuinness leads the way with 12.3 ppg and Johnson is second with 11.0 ppg.  McQuade and freshman Victoria Rampado aren't far behind with 9.3 ppg and 8.0 ppg, respectively. 
    
Syracuse (8-1) is coming off of its first loss of the season, a 97-91 decision against Iowa.  Prior to the loss, the Orange rattled off eight-straight victories, including a 113-42 victory over The University of Maryland Eastern Shore.  They are led offensively by Britany Sykes, who is scoring at a 19.8 ppg clip, and Brianna Butler, who has averaged 16.6 ppg.  Shakeya Leary is narrowly missing averaging a double-double per game with 9.4 ppg and 9.2 rpg through the first nine games.  As a team they are averaging 86.6 ppg while only giving up 58.6, which is good for a +28.0 point differential. 
    
So far for the season, the Orange are 4-0 at home while the Purple Eagles are 0-4 away from the Gallagher Center.
 
How To Tune In
• Purple Eagle fans can follow all of Thursday's action via PurpleEagles.com.  In addition to the Time Warner Cable SportsChannel broadcast, fans can tune in to a live video broadcast provided by Syracuse and follow along with Live Stats.
 
Against the Orange (SU leads 8-4)
•   The Orange won the previous contest, 81-30, in the first matchup between the two teams since the 2008 season on 12/29/11.  Niagara has split the last four contests against Syracuse, dating back to 2005

Against the ACC
•   Niagara has played five of the 15 teams that make up the modern day ACC throughout the program's history.   The Purple Eagles have played just two of those teams (Maryland and Syracuse) since the 2002-03 season. The last Pittsburgh matchup came in 1994, the North Carolina game was played in 1993, and the last time the NU Purple Eagles played the Miami Hurricanes was back in 1989.

Splitting The Last Four
•  The Syracuse Orange have won the previous two meetings against the Purple Eagles, but before that it was NU that took two in-a-row.  In 2005-06 Niagara won at home, 61-45, before taking the next game on the road, 59-54.
 
National Success
•  The Purple Eagles have two players in the top-50 of several national statistical rankings.
•  Kelly Van Leeuwen is 18th in the nation with a 3.22 turnover/assist ratio.
•  Meghan McGuinness is 21st in the NCAA with a 46.5 percent three-point field-goal percentage and 37th with 2.86 three-point field goals per game.
 
Scoring In The Double-Digits
•  Four players scored over 10 points for the Purple Eagles in their win over Robert Morris (12/7).  Chanel Johnson scored 20 points; Meghan McGuinness and Val McQuade both scored 12; and Kelly Van Leeuwen added another 10.
•  The last time NU had four players hit double-digits was in the 2012-13 season against Rider (1/18/13).  Kayla Stroman scored 13 points; Lauren Gatto and Shy Britton both scored 11; and Meghan McGuinness added 10.
 
Chanel Johnson
•  Chanel Johnson has scored over 10 points in the last two games.  The last time she scored in the double-digits in two consecutive games was early last season when she scored 14 against Bowling Green (11/15/12) followed by a 12-point performance against Bucknell (11/21/12).
•  The senior's longest double-digit scoring streak was as a freshman in the 2010-11 season when she over 10 points in four consecutive games. 
 
Double Down
•  Chanel Johnson became the first Purple Eagle to register a double-double in the 2013-14 season when she scored 15 points and pulled down 12 rebounds against Kent State (12/4).
•  The last Purple Eagle to get a double-double was Lauren Gatto against Loyola (2/7/13) with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
 
"Double Vision"
•  The Purple Eagles have had three players hit double digit points in five of their first seven games this season.
•  Six different players have scored at least 10 points in a game for the Purple Eagles.  Val McQuade has hit double figures a team-leading three times; Meghan McGuinness, Victoria Rampado, Taylor McKay, and Sylvia Maxwell have all done it once; and Chanel Johnson joined the club against Binghamton (11/23).
•  They had three players score at least 10 points eight times last season, but only once did they do it in back-to-back games.  Those games were on Nov. 15 against Bowling Green and Nov. 21 against Bucknell.  They never had three players score at least 10 points in three-consecutive games last season.
 
Road Weary
•  The Purple Eagles are 0-4 on the road this season.  Thursday's game is the team's final chance to get a road victory in non-conference play.
 
"All Those Yesterdays"
•  The Purple Eagles have a 114-127 all-time record in the month of December.
•  Their all-time best showing in the final month of the year was in 1976-77 when they went a perfect 7-0. Last season they went 3-3.
•  The team is 1-1 this season