Eagles Host Huskies in 37th MAC Home Opener

Northern Illinois (4-9, 0-1 MAC) vs. Eastern Michigan (4-10, 1-0 MAC)
Date	Tuesday, January 11, 2011 • 7:05 p.m.
Location	Ypsilanti, Mich. • Convocation Center
On the Air	Eagle All-Access (Live Video) • 89.1 WEMU-FM
EMUEagles.com	EMU Games Notes \| NIU Game Notes \| Live Stats
All-Time Series	NIU leads, 47-29

EAGLES HOST HUSKIES IN 37th MAC HOME OPENER: The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team will host Northern Illinois University Tuesday, Jan. 11, in the 37th Mid-American Conference home opener for the Eagles. Game time is 7 p.m. in the Convocation Center. The Eagles have an 18-18 record in MAC openers at home. Eastern has met Northern Illinois twice in MAC home openers and the two teams split, with NIU winning the first match up, 78-77, Jan. 7, 1978, and EMU taking an 81-56 win, Jan. 2, 1985. The first year of MAC play for EMU was 1974-75 when the then-Hurons went 12-14 overall and 4-9 in league play. EMU has won three Mid-American Conference titles: 1987-88, 1990-91, and 1995-96, and the Green and White captured MAC Tournament crowns in all three of those years in addition to winning the tournament title in 1997-98.

EMU VS. NORTHERN ILLINOIS: Northern Illinois leads the series, 47-29. EMU won two out of three games played last year. After NIU won the first meeting of the 2009-10 season, 77-69, Jan. 16, in DeKalb, Ill., EMU came back to win the second match up, 66-60, Feb. 27, in Ypsilanti. The two then met in the first-round of the MAC Tournament and the Eagles won a 65-59 decision, March 7, also at home in Ypsilanti.
EMU enters Tuesday's game with a 4-10 overall record and a 1-0 MAC mark, while NIU is 4-9 overall and 0-1 in league action.

TEAM EFFORT: All 11 EMU players that saw action at Toledo Saturday, Jan. 8, hit the scoring column, the first time all season that everyone in the lineup scored. The bench also came through with a major effort, scoring 26 points, the fourth-best total this season.

ANOTHER BIG EFFORT FOR JANTON: EMU junior center Kamil Janton (Tarnow, Poland-Chicago Bartlett H.S.) turned in another strong effort off the bench for the Eagles in a 71-48 win at Toledo, Jan. 8. Janton scored 11 points with 8 rebounds against Rochester, Dec. 21, and scored 10 points with 7 rebounds at Toledo.

MAJOR DEFENSE: When the Eagles held Toledo to just 48 points Saturday, Jan. 11, 2011, in a 71-48 EMU win it marked the first time since Feb. 17, 2010 that EMU limited a team to under 50 points in a game since a 58-42 win, at Toledo, Feb. 17, 2010.

CLIMBING UP THE RECORD BOOK: EMU senior forward Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor (Mich.) Truman) has moved into the top seven in both EMU career scoring and rebounding. After the first 14 games of the 2010-11 season Bowdry has scored 1,555 career points to rank 7th and his 867 rebounds is good for the 4th spot. In addition, Bowdry has scored in double figures 79 times. He has played in 110 games for the Eagles, earning 102 starts in his four-year career.

LEADERS OF THE MAC: Senior forward Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor, Mich.-Truman) leads the Mid-American Conference in rebounding (10.4) as well as both defensive rebounding (7.29) and offensive rebounding (3.07). Sophomore Jamell Harris (Euclid, Ohio-Euclid) is the second-leading shot blocker at 2.21 bpg. The Eagles are tops in the league in reboundind offense (38.9), rebounding margin (+4.1) and defensive rebounding (26.50).

BOWDRY TWO-FOR-TWO: EMU senior forward Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor (Mich.) Truman) was named to the all-tournament team for both in-season tournaments this season. He was selected to the All-Tournament Team at the Basketball Travelers Invitational, Dec. 3-5, 2010, in Moscow, Idaho. Bowdry averaged 21.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists in the three games. The 6-foot-6 senior posted two double-doubles in the Lou Henson Tournament hosted by Oakland University, Dec. 20-21. He scored 24 with 10 boards in a loss to Valparaiso, Dec. 20, and came back with 22 points and 14 rebounds in the third-place win over Rochester College, Dec. 21.

HITTING THE CENTURY MARK: EMU senior wing Will Cooper (Detroit, Mich.-Pershing-Bridgton Academy) has played in 1045games for the Eagles, earning 28 starts during his four-year career. Teammate Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor (Mich.) Truman) has played in 110 games, starting 102 times.

FOR OPENERS: With the season-opening loss at Michigan State Friday, Nov. 12, EMU now has a 65-49 record in season openers while Charles Ramsey is 3-3 in lid-lifters. The Eagles are 9-68 against the Big Ten, playing everyone except Northwestern.

CONVO RECORDS: EMU set or tied two Convocation Center records in a 68-65 overtime loss to Detroit Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. The Eagles hauled down 62 team rebounds against the Titans, breaking the Convo record of 54 by a visiting Buffalo team, March 3, 2003. Senior forward Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor (Mich.) Truman) tied the single-game rebound mark for the Convo with 19 boards. That total tied the mark shared by EMU's Tyson Radney who had 19 twice, against UWGB (11-29-00) and Grambling (12-23-00), and Ball State's Therron Smith (1-5-02) versus EMU.

BOWDRY TURNS IN CAREER-BEST EFFORTS: EMU senior forward Brandon Bowdry (St. Louis, Mo.-Taylor, Mich.-Truman) has turned in two career-best performances this season. In the Michigan State game, Nov. 12, Bowdry scored a career-best 32 points, connected on a career-high five three-point field goals and tied his career-high with 15 rebounds against the No. 2 ranked team in the nation. In the Detroit game, Dec. 11, Bowdry just missed his career-best with a 31-point efffort, but turned in a career-high 19 rebounds against the Titans.

HARRIS WORKS BOTH ENDS OF THE COURT: Sophomore Jamell Harris (Euclid, Ohio-Euclid) worked both ends of the court to produce big numbers in EMU's 2010-11 home opener against Madonna University, Nov. 17. Harris turned in the first double-double of his career with 15 points and 13 rebounds. The 6-foot-9 Harris also set a Convocation Center record for single-game blocks with seven, breaking the mark of six held by three opposing players, Marshall's LaVar Carter (11-30-04), IPFW's Davis Simon (2-6-05) and Northern Illinois player James Hughes (10-9-07). The seven blocks also ties the EMU record for the second-most single-game blocks with Brian Nolan, versus Stetson(12-9-89) and two by Theron Wilson, vs. Toledo (2-13-93) and Kent State (1-20-93).

FOR THE 114th TIME: The 2010-11 season is the 114th of men's intercollegiate basketball for the Eastern Michigan University Eagles. Eastern played its first season in 1897-98 and split games with Detroit, losing a 2-0 decision before coming back for a 4-0 victory. The 2010-11 season will also be the 37th for the Eagles in the Mid-American Conference. The first year of MAC play for EMU was 1974-75 when the then-Hurons went 12-14 overall and 4-9 in league play. EMU has won three Mid-American Conference titles: 1987-88, 1990-91, and 1995-96, and the Green and White captured MAC Tournament crowns in all three of those years in addition to winning the tournament title in 1997-98.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

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