Eagles Welcome Bobcats to Town on Tuesday Night

YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) --The Eastern Michigan University men's basketball team will make its return to Ypsilanti for a pair of games for the first time since 2014. The Eagles (12-7, 1-5 MAC) start their two-game homestand with a Mid-American Conference cross-divisional contest against Ohio University Tuesday night, Jan. 27. The Bobcats (7-10, 2-4 MAC) come into the game on a two-game winning streak after taking down the University at Buffalo, 63-61, on a dunk with 0.6 seconds left on the clock at the OU Convocation Center Saturday, Jan. 24. Eastern has lost five of its first six MAC games but is hoping playing at home will be the start of a winning groove.

FINDING THE GAME AT HOME: The Eastern Michigan versus Ohio contest can be found on 89.1 FM WEMU and Eagle All-Access. Fans can dial into 89.1 FM or listen over the internet to the smooth sounds of veteran play-by-play voice, Chad Bush. Joining Bush on the call will be analyst Assistant Athletic Media Relations Director Sean Hostetter along with executive producer and Assistant Athletic Director Greg Steiner. Coverage of the game on 89.1 will begin at 6:50 p.m.
For those who prefer to watch the game, it will be broadcast on Eastern's live webstreaming service Eagle All-Access. Subscriptions for Eagle All-Access start at just $6.95 and can be purchased at EMUEagles.com/watch. The pregame show and analysis will begin at 6:50 p.m. on Tuesday.

ALL-TIME VERSUS OHIO: The Eagles are behind in the series with Ohio as Eastern trails by a tally of 45-23. Although they've been fairly dominant in the overall series, the Bobcats have not had the same success they're used to in recent years. In the last 10 meetings, the Eagles are 4-6 against OU.
Last season, Eastern saw the Bobcats on just one occasion. The Eagles fell, 58-56, Jan. 25, 2014 in the Convocation Center. Despite leading for all but the final 1:36 of the contest, the Eagles were unable to hold off the Bobcats in the closing minutes of the afternoon's matchup. EMU was led by Glenn Bryant and Karrington Ward. Bryant tossed in 14 points for the Green and White and pulled down seven rebounds. Ward notched his third double-double of the 2013-14 season, putting up 13 points and a team-high 10 boards. Da'Shonte Riley led all players with three blocks, while pulling down nine rebounds.

LIKELY LOOK FOR THE BOBCATS...

#	Name	Pos.	Cl.	Ht.	Wt.	ppg	rpg	apg	Hometown-Previous School
3	Javarez "Bean" Willis	G	Sr.	5-11	172	14.7	3.1	3.1	Homer, La.-Texas Tech
5	Maurice Ndour	F	Sr.	6-9	200	16.0	8.4	1.8	Mbour, Senegal-Monroe College
14	Ryan Taylor	G	Fr.	6-5	187	9.9	2.9	1.5	Gary, Ind.-St. John's NW Military
24	Mike Laster	G	Fr.	6-4	180	4.4	2.1	0.5	Detroit, Mich.-Cass Technical
33	Antonio Campbell	F	So.	6-8	260	9.4	6.8	0.4	Cincinnati, Ohio-Holy Cross

A LOOK AT BOBCATS: Ohio comes into Tuesday's games as one of the hotter teams in the MAC. OU has won its last two games defeating Ball State, 82-73, on the road before knocking off Buffalo, 63-61, in Athens on a last second dunk from Maurice Ndour. Ndour leads the Bobcats in scoring (16 ppg) and rebounding (8.4 rpg). In addition, the 6-foot-9 forward shoots 78.6 percent from the charity stripe. Ohio's secondary scorer is Javarez "Bean" Willis who records 14.7 points per contest. As a team, the Bobcats shoot 43.9 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.

IMPRESSIVE DEFENSIVE EFFORT: Although the final tally was not what the Eagles had hoped for in the 65-51 loss at Central Michigan, EMU did a solid job neutralizing the CMU offense. The Chippewas came into the contest scoring over 85 points per game, while the Green and White held them to just 65. Central shot just 36.5 percent against Eastern Michigan, while the Chips were shooting over 50 percent prior to the start of the game.

MELTDOWN: Last year, the Eagles took on Ohio at the Convocation Center, Jan. 25, 2014. The Eagles led by as many as 13 points and held the lead for 37 minutes and four seconds of the 40-minute contest before the Bobcats roared back, taking the lead for the first time when Javarez Willis knocked down a three-ball with just 27 seconds left on the clock, icing the game for Ohio.

MAC WOES: Eastern Michigan was impressive in the non-conference campaign, posting a 12-2 record, while holding teams to just 56.9 points per game and a 34.2 shooting percentage. Things have not been so great for the Eagles since starting Mid-American Conference play. EMU is allowing teams to score 65.3 points per contest and knock down 49.5 percent of its shots. On the offensive side, Eastern hit on 41.5 percent of its shots in non-conference but have been held to just 35.5 percent in MAC games.

BOND BREAKS OUT: EMU "true" freshman Tim Bond did not play in the first 13 games of the season due to injury. However, since recovering, Bond has appeared in all five Mid-American Conference games. Bond's best game came against Bowling Green, Jan. 21, when the Baltimore, Md. native went off for career-highs in nearly every category. Bond scored 13 points on 4-of-11 shooting, including knocking down his only three-point try of the season. The 6-foot-6 combo guard went 4-of-6 from the free throw line, while recording the first two assists of his career. On the defensive side, Bond rejected the Falcons on three times, while picking BGSU's pocket on one occasion.

IS 60 THE KEY?: It seems that the Eagles offense has lost its luster since entering Mid-American Conference play. In fact, the Green and White has passed the 60-point plateau on just one occasion, an 82-81 overtime loss at Miami. Prior to the MAC campaign, Eastern had been held to less than 60 points on just two occasions. Both games came against Big Ten Conference opponents, as the Eagles scored just 45 in a win over Michigan and 46 in a loss at Michigan State.

TALLEY RECORDS HIS 1,000th CAREER POINT: Eastern Michigan senior guard Mike Talley has proven his talent year in and year out at the NCAA Division I level and the Detroit, Mich. proved it on Saturday, Jan. 17, in the Eagles win over Northern Illinois. The 6-foot tall point guard stepped to the free throw line with just 21 seconds on the clock and knocked down the first of two free throws to record the 1,000th point of his career. Talley started his career at Duquesne, where he spent two seasons. In his first year as a Duke, Talley notched 222 points, averaging 6.9 per game before recording 231 in his sophomore campaign for a total of 453. Add that the 561 he scored at EMU and Talley has 1,014 career points as a collegiate student-athlete.

BENCH BATTLE: Eastern has proved itself as a very deep team this season and it shows by the bench production. EMU has been outscored by the opposing bench just four times this season. They lead the bench scoring battle 401-366, scoring, with the reserves 30.7 percent of the Eagles' offense.

MURPHY VERSUS THE MAC: Fourth-year Head Men's Basketball Coach Rob Murphy holds a 27-29 all-time record against Mid-American Conference opponents in his third MAC season. The Detroit, Mich. native won the MAC-West Division Title in 2011-12 during his first season as the head man at EMU, before going 7-9 in 2012-13. Last season, his squad reached their highest win total of 10, after going 10-8 in MAC play. Murphy and his squads have seen most of their success against teams from their own divisions, going 20-13, while they are just 7-16 against the East.

THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER: Despite not having a clear-cut go-to guy in the middle, the "three-headed monster" of Olalekan Ajayi, Jerome Hunter and Mike Samuels have been productive for EMU. The trio has combined for 8.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.

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Players Mentioned

Olalekan Ajayi

Tim Bond

Glenn Bryant

Jerome Hunter

Da'Shonte Riley

Mike Samuels

Mike Talley

Karrington Ward

Eastern Michigan Athletics