Escape Is At Hand For The Traveling [Wo]Man
The Niagara Purple Eagles come out of the Christmas break and open up the MAAC schedule against the newly-minted MAAC rival Quinnipiac on Sunday at 1:00 p.m.
    
While this matchup with be the first conference tilt of 2013-14 for the Purple Eagles (2-7, 0-0 MAAC), this will be the third such contest for the Bobcats (6-6, 1-1 MAAC).  They were welcomed to the club with a 69-63 loss to Marist on Dec. 6 before last Saturday's 65-55 win over Canisius.
    
Niagara will look to improve on its starts over the past two seasons.  In 2011-12 the team began the MAAC schedule 2-3 on its way to a 9-9 overall record.  The following year, 2012-13, the team flipped the script and went 3-2 through its first five but ultimately finished with a 9-9 record. 
    
The Purple Eagles have seen an improvement in the frontcourt over two of the last three games.  If you subtract the matchup against the ACC's Syracuse Orange, the Purple Eagles have scored 75.5 ppg in the two games against Robert Morris (Dec. 7) and Buffalo (Dec. 21).  In those two contests they are hitting 44.5 percent of their chances from the floor (up from 37.9 percent for the season) while holding opponents to 36.6 percent (down from 40.4 percent for the season).
    
So far this year, Quinnipiac leads the MAAC with 72.4 points per game (ppg) and 16.7 assists per game (apg).  Niagara is fifth in scoring with 61.7 ppg and seventh with 13.8 apg. 
    
Both teams enter Sunday's action with three players averaging over 10 points per game.  Val McQuade, who is coming off a 31-point effort against Buffalo, leads the Purple and White with 11.9 ppg.  Chanel Johnson and Meghan McGuinness are a quick two/three combo with 10.7 ppg and 10.4 ppg, respectively.  On the other side, Jasmine Martin, a junior guard, leads the Bobcats with 15.7 ppg.  The team's only starting senior, Brittany McQuain, is second with 11.4 ppg and Gillian Abshire is third with an even 10.0 ppg.
    
While Sunday won't be the first MAAC game for the Bobcats, who joined the conference with Monmouth in the spring of 2013, it will be the first-ever time Quinnipiac and Niagara will face each other.     
 
How To Tune In
•    Purple Eagle fans can follow all of Sunday's action via PurpleEagles.com.  Live stats, a live video broadcast, and a live audio broadcast will be provided through Quinnipiac.
 
Against the Bobcats (First Meeting)
•   Sunday's game will be the first time these teams will face each other.  Quinnipiac joined the MAAC in the summer of 2013.

 
Are You Ready
•  This game will be the first MAAC game of the season for the Purple Eagles.
•  Three MAAC teams (Marist, Quinnipiac, and Canisius) have already played conference games this season.
•  NU is 11-12 all-time in MAAC openers.
•  The last time the Purple Eagles opened up the conference schedule on the road was on 1/2/12 with a 57-54 win over the Loyola Greyhounds (who have since left the conference).
 
Fireworks
•  Val McQuade's 31-point night against Buffalo (12/21) made her the first Purple Eagle to score over 30 points in a game since 2006.
•  Her 6-for-10 showing from beyond the three-point line made her the second NU player to hit six three's in a game this season.  The first was Meg McGuinness, who hit seven against Lehigh (11/8).
•  Three more three pointers would have made her the first NU player to hit at least nine three pointers and score at least 40 points in a game since Kim Kuhn did both against Holy Cross on Feb. 24, 1990.
 
My Music At Work
•  As the Purple Eagles enter the MAAC schedule, they have three players in the top-18 in the conference scoring leaderboard.
•  Val McQuade sits just outside the top-10 with 11.9 ppg that land her in 11th place.  Four spots later Chanel Johnson is in 15th with 10.7 ppg and Meghan McGuinness' 10.4 ppg have her tied for 18th.
 
National Success
•  The Purple Eagles have two players in the top-50 of a pair of national statistical rankings.
•  Kelly Van Leeuwen is 45h in the nation with a 2.33 turnover/assist ratio.
•  Val McQuade is 40th in the NCAA with a 42.9 percent three-point field-goal percentage.
•  Two more players appear in the top-100 as Chanel Johnson's 85.2 percent free-throw percentage rank her 73rd and Meghan McGuinness is 77th with 5 three-point field goals per game and 84th with a 38.6 percent three-point field-goal percentage.