The Road So Far
The second and fifth seeds in the MAAC will go head-to-head on Saturday when the Niagara Purple Eagles and the Marist Red Foxes meet at 7:00 p.m. in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. at the McCann Arena.
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Niagara (6-12; 4-5 MAAC) has made a late charge through the conference standings. Â The Purple Eagles have gotten hot, winning three of their last five games after starting out winning one of their first four. Â The last two wins were not only their first two wins of the season on the road, but were both come from behind victories. Â
Victoria Rampado's second half heroics against Monmouth have been pretty well covered, so we'll move on. Â The win over Manhattan featured a 22-4 run early in the second half to not only get the Purple Eagles back in the game, but to give them control of the game. Â The defense was strong throughout, especially in overtime when it held the Jaspers to a 1-for-7 clip from the floor andÂ
Taylor McKay got a steal on the last possession to seal the deal. Â
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McKay is the second young player to take over in the last two games, Rampado being the first. McKay not only finished a point off the team-lead with a career-high 14 points after a 6-for-10 night from the floor, but shared the team lead with eight rebounds and five assists.
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The Red Foxes (14-5; 8-1 MAAC) have gone through conference play the same way you'd expect them to. They rattled off nine straight wins before losing to the MAAC-leading Iona Gaels. Since then they have won their last three games, including last Sunday's against Niagara, by an average of 23 points. The 15-point, 74-59 win over NU was Marist's narrowest margin of victory since its MAAC opener against Canisius, a 57-49 win.Â
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This year's Red Foxes feature five players averaging over 10.0 ppg, led by Madeline Bent's 14.8 ppg. Emma O'Connor is scoring at a 13.3 ppg clip and leads the team in rebounding with 6.3 rpg. Before Monday's 73-71 loss to Iona, the Red Foxes were on a 10-game winning streak.
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A win on Saturday would not only get the Purple Eagles to .500 in the MAAC schedule, but also their first win over the Red Foxes since 2010. Â The fate of these teams have been intertwined for the last two seasons, like the Winchesters and Azazel. Â The Purple and White came close a few times in 2011, including the last game of the season and the first MAAC tournament semifinal appearance when the teams went into overtime.
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How To Tune In
•   Purple Eagle fans can follow all of Saturday's action via PurpleEagles.com. Fans will also be able to follow along with live stats.
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Against the Red Foxes (Marist leads 24-13)
•  The Red Foxes are on a nine-game winning streak over the Purple Eagles. The final two matchups in 2011-12 went into at least one overtime. The first game this season was within two points in the second half after an 18-2 run by the Purple Eagles.
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The Family Business
• As if they found an entry about rebounding in John's journal, the Purple Eagles have put on a rebounding clinic in the last few games after struggling earlier in the season.
• In the two games since NU went head-to-head with Marist (both wins, by the way), it has a +19 rebounding margin.
• The largest rebounding margin came against Manhattan on Thursday when NU almost doubled-up the Jaspers, 49-25. Before that they had a +14 advantage over Monmouth (1/19), 49-35, and a +12 over Marist (1/17), 40-28.
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"Chock-full of Ovaltine, are we?"
• Thursday's contest against Manhattan was a career night for sophomore Taylor McKay.  She set carrer highs with 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists, six field goals, four steals, and 34 minutes played.
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Youth Movement
• The Purple Eagles have seen new leaders emerge over the past pair of games. Victoria Rampado took the reins against Monmouth and Taylor McKay stepped up against Manhattan.
• Those two are in the top-three in scoring over the last two games. Rampado's 15.5 ppg leads the way (she averages 7.2 ppg for the season) and McKay's 9.0 ppg is third (up from 5.5 ppg for the year).
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Chanel Johnson has been the constant. She leads the team over the course of the full season with 12.8 ppg and in MAAC games with14.3 ppg.  Her 9.5 ppg in NU's two consecutive wins is second on the team in that stretch.
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"If you find him, say "Poughkeepsie'. It's our go word."
• As noted before, a win on Saturday would be a big one for Niagara in more ways than one. It would get the team to .500 in MAAC play and be the team's first win over the Red Foxes since Jan. 31, 2010.Â
• Not only that, but it would be the team's first win in Poughkeepsie since the 2000-01 season when NU won a close one, 63-61, and snap a nine-game losing streak against Marist.
Consecutive Wins
•  With the win over Manhattan on Thursday, Niagara has won consecutive games for the first time this season.
•  The Purple and White are one of just four teams to be on a winning streak.  The other teams are Iona (eight), Marist (three), and Quinnipiac (four).
