PURPLE EAGLES MEN'S BASKETBALL
GAME 15	Niagara Purple Eagles (7-7, 0-1 MAAC) vs. Fairfield Stags (3-11, 0-2 MAAC)
DATE | TIME	Monday, January 7 | 7 PM
LOCATION	George Bisacca Court at Alumni Hall – Fairfield University
GAME NOTES	Niagara | Fairfield
SERIES	Niagara Leads 41-33
BROADCAST	ESPN3 - Bob Heussler & Joe DeSantis
RADIO	107.3 FM/AM 1400 WWWS – Todd Callen
LIVE STATS	FairfieldStags.Com
TWITTER	@NiagaraMBB
INSTAGRAM	@NiagaraMBB

 
The Niagara Purple Eagles continue their conference opening road trip against the Fairfield Stags on Monday, January 7 at 7 p.m.
 
Scene Setter
•  Niagara entered league play as the only MAAC team with a winning record and finished its non-conference regular season schedule with a 7-6 record for the second straight season.
•  The Purple Eagles concluded their non-conference schedule going 5-2 in December. The Purple Eagles had a three-game win streak from December 3-16 with wins at Pitt, and at home versus New Hampshire and Cornell. NU also defeated Army and Norfolk State.
•  Niagara boasts victories against opponents from the ACC (Pitt), Atlantic-10 (St. Bonaventure) and Mountain West Conference (Wyoming).
•  In their MAAC opener at Manhattan, the Purple Eagles were unable to hold on to a 14-point second half lead as they dropped their MAAC opener for the third straight season.
•  Niagara and Fairfield split last season's two regular season meetings with each team protecting home court. The rubber match was played in the MAAC Tournament Quarterfinals where the Stags prevailed, 90-77.
•  Last season, Niagara led the MAAC in road wins with 10, including six in league play.
 
Tipoff Tidbits
•  Marvin Prochet leads Niagara and is second in the MAAC in scoring, averaging a career-high 17.9 points per contest. Prochet, who led the MAAC in rebounds last season, is once again at the top of the list with a career-high 8.9 per game. He is shooting a career-high 42.9 percent from the 3-point line which is second in the league.
•  Dominic Robb leads the MAAC in total blocks (47) and blocks per game (3.4) while ranking fourth and fifth, respectively, in those categories nationally.
•  James Towns sits atop of the MAAC in free throws percentage (.837) and in free throws made (72). Towns is also averaging career-high numbers in assists per game (4.8) and in assist/turnover ratio (1.8) which are both third best in the MAAC.
•  James Towns picked up his first career double-double with 15 points and a career-high 10 assists against Norfolk State. He was three rebounds shy of a triple-double.
•  Dominic Robb, who has had at least three blocks in the last five games, is now 17 blocks away from tying Joe Arlauckas ('87) who finished his career with 220 blocks, for first place.
•  Marvin Prochet collected his MAAC-leading sixth double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds at Cleveland State on December 19. Prochet, who is 19th in the nation in double-doubles, has six double-doubles in 11 games. 
•  After scoring a total of nine points through nine games, freshman Marcus Hammond has scored 48 points in the last five games, including leading NU in scoring with a career-best 16 points against Albany.
•  James Towns has scored in double figures in the last five games, averaging 15.8 points while shooting 86 percent from the free-throw line, and averaging 6.0 assists and 4.6 rebounds.
          
On The Court
Fairfield Stags (3-11, 0-2 MAAC)
•  Fairfield has lost six of its last seven games, including its first two MAAC games in which the Stags were unable to hold on to double-digit second half leads to Rider and Iona.
•  Three Stags are averaging double figures scoring - Landon Taliaferro (14.1 ppg), Neftali Alvarez (13.1 ppg), and Jonathan Kasibabu (10.8 ppg).
•  Fairfield leads the MAAC in 3-point field goal percentage (.390), second in free throw percentage (.730), and third in points per game (73.0).
 
Against the Stags (Niagara Leads 41-33)
•  After going 5-1 from January 2013 to March 2015, the Purple Eagles have won just once in the last seven meetings with the Stags.
•  Niagara has split the last six trips to Fairfield, dropping the last three.
•  13 of the last 19 meetings have been decided by eight points or less.
 
Last Meeting - March 3, 2018
Fairfield 90, Niagara 77
 
ALBANY, N.Y. – Junior forward Dominic Robb led all scorers with a career-high 29 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds as the third-seeded Purple Eagles fell to the No. 6 seed Fairfield Stags, 90-77, in the 2018 MAAC Championship Quarterfinals on Saturday night.
 

The Series	Niagara leads 41-33
Last Game	March 3, 2018
	Fairfield 90, Niagara 77
Last Niagara Win	February 10, 2018
	Niagara 95, Fairfield 83
Last Fairfield Win	March 3, 2018
	Fairfield 90, Niagara 77
Last Niagara Win at Fairfield	February 15, 2015
	Niagara 55, Fairfield 53
Last Fairfield Win at Home	January 20, 2018
	Fairfield 104, Niagara 85
Current Streak	Fairfield, W1
Coach Casey vs. Fairfield	4-7