Eagles and Huskies Set For A Double-Dip in DeKalb

Women's Basketball at Northern Illinois
Date	Saturday, Jan. 9 \| 5 p.m. CT
Venue	DeKalb, Ill. \| Convocation Center (9,100)
Game Notes	EMU Notes
Live Stats	Live Stats
Watch	ESPN3
Listen	WEMU 89.1 FM
Twitter	@EMUWBB \| @EMUAthletics

DEKALB, Ill. (EMUEagles.com) -- For the first time in 29 days the Eastern Michigan University women's basketball team departs the state of Michigan for a Mid-American Conference affair at Northern Illinois University. Tip-off is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 9, at 5 p.m. CT inside the NIU Convocation Center. The game is the first part of a doubleheader with the EMU men's basketball team, who tangle with NIU following the conclusion of the women's contest.
   Eastern Michigan enters the game with a mark of 10-3 (1-1 MAC) after being stunned in overtime by the University of Akron, 68-65, at the Convocation Center, Jan. 6. The Huskies are 8-5 (1-1 MAC) on the season, and come in also looking to regroup following a 66-60 setback at Miami University, Jan. 6.
   Veteran broadcasters Chad Bush and Greg Steiner will have the call on WEMU (89.1 FM) beginning at 5:50 p.m. ET. The game will also be shown on ESPN3 as part of the campus connection initiative.

DOUBLE THE FUN: For the first time in six years, fans of Eastern Michigan basketball will get the chance to see both the men's and women's teams in back-to-back contests at the same road venue. Overall, it is just the fourth time it has happened in the past 14 seasons.
   The last occurrence was Jan. 9, 2010, against Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Mich. The women's team walked away with a 61-52 victory, but the men's squad fell 61-47 to the Broncos. Ironically, the previous road doubleheader to that also came at WMU and was six years earlier. It was again the women winning, 85-74, with the men falling, 75-55.
   During the 2002-03 campaign, the women's team was upended by the University of Toledo, 65-55, with the men's team pulling out a 76-73 victory thanks to a three-pointer by Michael Ross with less than a second remaining in the game at then-Savage Hall in Toledo, Ohio, Feb. 22, 2003.

ROAD WARRIORS: Eastern Michigan owns a 5-1 record on the road, with the only blemish coming at the hands of No. 10 Kentucky, Nov. 25. With a win over Northern Illinois, Jan. 9, the Eagles will have notched six road wins in a season for the fourth time in the past six seasons. EMU has compiled a 56-45 road record over that stretch.

FIELD GOAL WOES: EMU's aggressive defense has forced five of its last six opponents to shoot less than 40 percent from the floor during the contest. Even more impressive, two of those teams (Madonna and Akron) have been limited to less than 30 percent for the contest.

WEBB WITH AUTHORITY: Junior Phillis Webb continues to impress with her ability t0 rebound the basketball. Against Akron, Jan. 6, Webb surpassed her career-high with 15 rebounds. Her caroms total is the most by an EMU student-athlete this season.
   Webb has at least six caroms in 10 of her 12 games this season, and she already has a pair double-figure rebounding performances (15 vs. Akron, 11 at Monmouth).

FREE THROWS ARE KEY: The Eagles' free throw shooting ability proved to be the team's Achilles heel in the overtime setback to Akron, Jan. 6, as EMU shot just 35.7 percent (5-for-14) from the charity stripe. It marked the first time in 22 contests that Eastern Michigan had failed to make at least half of its freebies, and was the lowest percentage since going 2-for-6 (33.3%) last season versus Miami University, Jan. 21, 2015.

AKRON HEARTBREAK: Overcoming a 12-point first-half deficit, Akron tied the game with a buzzer-beating three pointer by Anita Brown at the end of regulation and outscored Eastern Michigan in overtime, 13-10, to capture a 68-65 victory, Jan. 6.
   The game came down to the end of regulation where the Zips held possession down one, 53-52, with 29 seconds left in the affair. A turnover on an offensive rebound gave Sasha Dailey a fast-break lay-up with 3.2 ticks left on the clock to extend Eastern Michigan's lead to 55-52. A called timeout allowed Akron to inbound the ball from the front court. Plybon threw the ball to Burry, who bounced a skip pass to Brown in the corner for her second buzzer-beating shot of the season.
   In overtime, the Zips went up 60-57 with 2:30 remaining after a pair of made free throws by Gibson. After a lay-up by Webb brought the Eagles to within one, 60-59, Plybon dialed long distance for a three pointer at the 2:10 mark to give Akron a 63-59 lead. The Zips made enough free throws down the stretch to record the 68-65 triumph.

MEETING THE HUSKIES ON THE HARDWOOD: Saturday evening's clash with Mid-American Conference West Division foe, Northern Illinois, marks the 45th time the two teams will have met on the hardwood. Eastern Michigan holds a hefty 32-12 lead in the all-time series, but has fallen in three of the last five meetings. In fact, the Eagles are 0-2 when playing at NIU's Convocation Center under the guidance of Head Coach Tory Verdi.
   Despite recent history, the Green and White handed the Huskies a 60-52 defeat in the most recent contest. Playing on their home court, the Eagles used a 21-point effort by Cha Sweeney and a double-double by Sera Ozelci to top the Huskies.

HUNTING THE HUSKIES: Northern Illinois hosts the Eagles in Mid-American Conference action under first-year head coach Lauren Carlsen. New leadership, led by Carlsen, has directed NIU to an 8-5 overall mark and a 1-1 record in MAC play. The Huskies welcome the Eagles to the Convocation Center with hopes of improving to 5-0 on their home court.
   In her third season as a Huskie, Ally Lehman has done a majority of the heavy lifting for NIU. A 5-foot-10 stretch guard, Lehman is the only player in the MAC to average a double-double with 13.5 points per game and 12.0 boards per contest. Behind the conference's leading rebounder, NIU has controlled the boards this season, ranking second in the conference with a +5.9 rebounding margin, second to only Ball State. Additionally, the Huskies rank fourth in the league in field goal percentage, converting 41.1 percent of their shots.

MAGIC NUMBERS: This season, when the Eagles have scored at least 70 points, their record is 8-0. All-time under Head Coach Tory Verdi's leadership, Eastern Michigan is 48-10 when leading at the half and 42-7 when posting a better shooting percentage than the opposition.

DEFENSE LEADING TO EASY OFFENSE: Over the first 13 games, the ultra-athletic Eagles have forced 18.5 turnovers a game while snagging 10.8 steals. The 241 turnovers by the opposition has led to 243 points-off-turnovers, or 24.4 percent of EMU's offense.

PLENTY TO GO AROUND: Eastern Michigan is the only MAC school to boast three players that average 13-or-more points a contest.

A LOOK AT THE CONFERENCE LEADERS: Eastern Michigan has positioned itself near the top of multiple statistical categories in the Mid-American Conference as of Jan. 4. Let's take a look...
   Player   Category   Rank   Number
   EMU   Turnovers Margin   1st   +5.54 (14th nationally)
   EMU   Fewest Turnovers   1st   169 (17th nationally)
   EMU   Turnovers Per Game   1st   13.0 (19th nationally)
   EMU   Steals Per Game   1st   10.8 (26th nationally)
   EMU   Scoring Offense   1st   76.5 (34th nationally)
   EMU   Assist Turnover Ratio   1st   1.02 (63rd nationally)
   EMU   Scoring Margin   3rd    +8.7 (92nd nationally)
   EMU   Free Throws Attempts   1st   257 (101st nationally)
   Janay Morton   Steals Per Game   1st   2.85 (32nd nationally)
   Janay Morton   Steals   1st   37 (34th nationally)
   Cha Sweeney   Field Goal Attempts   2nd   242 (15th nationally)
   Cha Sweeney   Points Per Game   3rd   19.4 (34th nationally)
   Phillis Webb   Field Goal Percentage   3rd   50.7 (82nd nationally)
   Sera Ozelci   Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage   3rd   37.5 (103rd nationally)
   Chanise Baldwin   Rebounds Per Game   5th   8.0 (142nd nationally)

WEBB ON A ROLL: Through the Eagles' first 13 games this season, junior Phillis Webb has reached double figures 11 times, including a career-high 22 points in Eastern's 64-63 win over Michigan, Dec. 23. To put that in perspective, Webb had racked up eight double-digit scoring efforts in her career coming into this season. Entering this year, Webb carried modest career averages of 4.1 points and 4.0 rebounds per game but has crushed them this season.
   In the Eagles last seven games, Webb is averaging 16.3 points and 9.0 caroms per game.

CHIPPIN' IN FROM THE CHARITY STRIPE: Juniors Cha Sweeney, Janay Morton, and Phillis Webb have been successful when getting to the free throw line this season, ranking in the Mid-American Conference's top-15 in free throw percentage. Eastern Michigan is the only school in the conference with three players ranked. Sweeney leads the way ranking seventh, shooting 83.3 percent from the line, knocking down 45-of-54 attempts. Morton is just behind in eighth, converting 83.0 percent from the charity stripe while Webb comes in at 15th boasting a 73.9 free throw percentage.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE: The Eagles have won 67 of the last 88 home games dating back to the 2008-09 season. Eastern Michigan has racked up a solid home-court advantage inside the friendly confines of the Convocation Center since the doors opened during the 1998-99 campaign. The Green and White have won 68.2 percent of the contests played in the building, piling up a 161-75 all-time mark.

PASSING 1,400: Junior Cha Sweeney has scored 1,445 points in her career and ranks eighth all-time in program history. Sweeney ranks 42nd nationally in active career points and is second in the MAC behind only Ball State's Nathalie Fontaine (1,802). At her current pace of 17.6 points per game, Sweeney is on track for 2,270 career points which would rank second only to all-time great Tavelyn James (2,470 points).

EMU VERSUS THE MAC: This is EMU's 35th season competing in the Mid-American Conference. The Eagles hold a 257-311 record against conference foes and have posted winning seasons in the MAC in 12 of the last 15 campaigns. EMU has had the most success against Northern Illinois, going 32-12, and the least versus Bowling Green, 15-49. Western Michigan has been the Green and White's most frequent opponent with 78 meetings, while Buffalo holds the distinction of the fewest conference games against the Eagles with 21.

INTERESTING STATS ABOUT EMU: In its 10 victories this season, EMU is averaging 80.4 points while the opposition is posting 64.2 points. In those games, opponents are shooting 36.5 percent from the field compared to 43.8 percent for the Eagles. In defeats, the Eagles are only scoring 63.7 points, while giving up 80.0. Another factor in the Eagles' success has been the ability to control the glass. EMU is grabbing 42.6 rebounds to 41.0 for the opponents in the wins, while in setbacks the rebounding edge tracks in the opponents favor (EMU 45.3, OPP 49.3).

SWIPER KEEPS SWIPING: Through Eastern Michigan's first 13 contests, junior Janay Morton ranks 32nd in the nation in steals per game, tallying 2.85 swipes per contest. The Brooklyn Park, Minn. product recorded a career-high seven steals against Texas Rio Grande Valley (Nov. 21) while adding four at Harvard (Dec. 9) and Detroit (Dec. 30).

ON THE HORIZON: Following Saturday's doubleheader, the Eagles return home Wednesday, Jan. 13, for a rematch of the 2015 Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship game against Ohio University. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at the Convocation Center.

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Players Mentioned

Chanise Baldwin

Sasha Dailey

Janay Morton

Sera Ozelci

Cha Sweeney

Phillis Webb

Eastern Michigan Athletics