Eagles Open MAC Tournament With NIU for Second-Straight Year

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) - After dropping Saturday afternoon's, March 9, Senior Day contest to the University of Toledo, 78-67, the Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team will start its quest for the 2013 FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship Monday, March 11. The seventh-seeded Eagles will host No. 10 seed Northern Illinois at the Convocation Center for a 7:04 p.m. tip time.
     The Eagles went 14-17 during the 2012-13 regular season campaign and 7-9 in conference play, Redshirt senior Derek Thompson is leading the offensive charge for the Green and White, posting 11.2 points per game, while redshirt junior Glenn Bryant is putting up 10.7. Daylen Harrison is averaging 8.9 points and 4.9 rebounds, while fellow transfer Da'Shonte Riley has led Eastern on the glass, hauling in 5.7 rebounds a game this season. Freshman Jalen Ross has dished out 74 assists, good for 2.4 per game, which tops EMU.
    The Huskies come into Monday's matchup with a record of 5-24 overall, while tying for the worst mark in MAC games at 3-13. Askel Bolin leads the Huskies in scoring (7.3 ppg) with the departure of Abdel Nader, while also leading NIU in rebounding (4.2 rpg). Travon Baker leads Northern in assists, averaging 1.9 per game.

FINDING THE GAME AT HOME: The Eagles' contest with the Huskies will be broadcast on WEMU (89.1 FM). Veteran play-by-play voice Chad Bush will be on the call from the Convocation Center, along with Assistant Athletic Director for Media Relations, Greg Steiner, who will serve as the analyst for the contest. Pre-game coverage of the matchup will begin at 6:50 p.m.
    Fans are not only encouraged to tune into the WEMU broadcast, but there will be a video stream available on EMU's Eagle All-Access for Monday's contest. Eagle All-Access is a subscription-based service and subscriptions start as low as $6.95 at EMUEagles.com/showcase.

ALL-TIME VERSUS NORTHERN ILLINOIS: Monday's contest will mark the 85th all-time meeting between the Huskies and Eagles. Northern Illinois holds the all-time edge, 50-32. EMU and NIU first met during the 1926-27 campaign, when 1976 E-Club Hall of Fame inductee Elton J. Rynearson was serving as the team's head coach. It was the second of four stints for Rynearson as the EMU head men's basketball coach. That team was downed in a home contest, 39-35, Feb. 5, 1927.

THE LAST TIME WE MET: Glenn Bryant tallied 14 points and pulled down eight boards to lead the Green and White. Derek Thompson also added 14 points, including 11 in the first half to go along with four steals, tying his career-high.
The Eagles shot 38.3 percent from the field, converting 18-of-47 shots while going 12-of-19 from the foul line. EMU turned 18 turnovers into 18 points and outscored NIU in the paint, 20-6.
    EMU's defense was impressive all night long, holding the Huskies to 10-of-42 shooting for a 23.8 percent clip. The Eagles held NIU's leading scorer, Abdel Nader, to six points and 2-of-11 from the floor. The Huskies made frequent trips to the charity stripe, going 16-of-23.

THE EAGLES' ROAD TO CLEVELAND: EMU will be the No. 7 seed in this year's FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Tournament, hosting the No. 10 seed Northern Illinois University Huskies. The winner will clinch its trip to Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland for a second round match up, March 13, at 9 p.m. The opponent will be the victor of the first round contest between the No. 6 seed Bowling Green State University and the No. 11 seed Miami University.

SEASON-HIGH ON SENIOR DAY: After being honored as one of the Eagles' three seniors, Detroit native Derek Thompson turned in his best performance of the season. The EMU guard tallied a season-best 25 points to lead the Green and White in its 78-67 setback against Toledo, March 9. Thompson also tied his season-high in threes, nailing 5-of-10 triples in the final regular season game of the year.

THREE TIMES IN ONE YEAR?: The last time EMU topped a conference opponent three times in one season was in 2006-07 campaign when the Eagles knocked off Ball State three times first at BSU, Jan. 13, then at the Convocation Center, Feb. 25, and finally in the MAC Tournament, March 7.

ENCORE AT THE CONVO: While the Eagles and Huskies will be competing against one another for the third time this season, it will be the second time at home for EMU, and the Eagles hope for a similar outcome as in in the first contest at EMU's Convocation Center, Jan. 26. The Eagles forced NIU to shoot 8-of-61 from the field including 1-of-33 from beyond the arc for a 13.1 shooting percentage. It marked the lowest field goal percentage in NCAA history since the beginning of the shot clock era in 1986, as the Eagles picked up the 42-25 victory.
    It was a dubious day for the Huskies who registered just one field goal and a pair of free throws in the opening half for a total of four points, breaking their own record-low of five first-half points from Dec. 1, 2012. It also tied the 2008 Savannah State Tigers for the fewest points scored in any half during the modern era. The one NIU basket also tied the NCAA record with Savannah State for fewest field goals made in one half as NIU shot 1-of-31 in the first half for a 3.2 percent conversion rate, another record low. The Huskies started 1-of-2, but went on to miss their next 36 shots over 24:33 of play before making a basket with 14:27 remaining in the game.

REVENGE COULD TASTE SO SWEET: EMU and NIU will face off in the first round of the MAC Tournament for the second straight season. Last year, the Huskies upset the MAC West Division Champion Eagles, 55-52, at EMU's Convocation Center, March 5, 2012. Jamell Harris would get a chance at a three-point field goal to tie the game at the buzzer, but his shot hit the backboard, bounced several times and finally spun out of the cylinder, ending the Eagles hopes at a last-second tie and its season.

EMU'S CAREER DIVISIONAL RECORD: The Mid-American Conference has had West-East Divisional competition since 1997-98. A complete list of divisional play is listed below.

EMU IN MAC DIVISIONAL PLAY

Year	MAC Record	Overall Record	Divisional Place
1997-98	13-5	20-10	3rd-West
1998-99	5-13	5-20	5th-West
1999-00	9-9	15-13	3rd-West
2000-01	1-17	3-25	6th-West
2001-02	2-16	6-24	6th-West
2002-03	8-10	14-14	T-4th-West
2003-04	7-11	13-15	5th-West
2004-05	5-13	12-18	6th-West
2005-06	3-15	7-21	5th-West
2006-07	6-10	13-19	4th-West
2007-08	8-8	14-17	T-2nd-West
2008-09	6-10	8-24	4th-West
2009-10	8-8	17-15	T-2nd-West
2010-11	5-11	9-22	T-4th-West
2011-12	9-7	14-18	1st-West
2012-13	7-9	14-17	4th-West

SCORING MACHINE: First-year Eagle Glenn Bryant has proved to be quite the offensive threat for Eastern this season. Bryant is averaging 10.7 points per game, but more impressively he has had double-figure performances in 20 games in his first year donning the Green and White. Before transferring from Arkansas, Bryant averaged just 3.3 points per game, while playing just over 11 minutes per contest for the Razorbacks.

SIMSANITY!: Since joining the starting lineup against Ball State, Feb. 16, J.R. Sims is averaging a 9.7 points per game, while shooting a blistering 23-of-56 (41.1 percent) from the floor and 13-of-29 (44.8 percent) from three-point land. He is also playing 30.9 minutes per game.
Prior to joining the starting lineup he saw just 18.7 minutes a game, while posting 4.5 points with a 36.5 shooting percentage.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO CLEVELAND: With the 2013 FirstEnergy Mid-American Conference Men's Basketball Tournament starting, the final bracket is set for the tournament in Cleveland, Ohio. After going 7-9 in conference play, Eastern Michigan settled in with No. 7-seed, tying for the seventh-best record in conference play this season, the Eagles earn the seventh-seed due to Toledo being ineligible for postseason play as well as losing the tiebreaker scenarios with Bowling Green and Buffalo. (For complete seeding details flip to page 2 of these notes)

A TAIL OF TWO TEAMS: EMU has shown impressive offensive and defensive efficiency against teams from the MAC West Division during the 2012-13 campaign. Although they are scoring just 55.4 points per game in contests against West Division opponents, the Eagles are shooting an astounding 42.7 percent from the floor, while hitting 35.1 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. Eastern is 5-5 in games against the West. Defensively, EMU allows just 53.9 points per game against teams from its division.
Conversely, in games against the East Division, the Green and White is scoring 58 points per game, while allowing 61.7 per game. The Eagles shoot under 40 percent in games against the East Division, while holding a 2-4 record in those six games. In games against East Division opponents, the opposition is shooting a solid 44.3 percent from the floor, while Da'Shonte Riley averages just one block a game. In games against the West, Riley blocks nearly two shots per game. Also, Eastern has not won a road game against a team from the East Division.

Eastern Michigan Athletics

Eagles Open MAC Tournament With NIU for Second-Straight Year

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