The Fairfield University women’s basketball team (game notes)continues its three-game home stand Friday night by hosting Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) foe Niagara University.  The Stags enter the game at 14-6 overall and 4-5 in the league, having lost their last outing.  The Purple Eagles, winners of back-to-back games, are 5-15 on the season and 3-7 in league play.

Friday night is the Stags designated 'Pack The House' contest.  Each of the 31 NCAA Division I conferences and a group comprised of the independents are taking part in the challenge.  The NCAA will select a winning institution from each of the 32 groups based on the school’s that sellout the selected game or have the largest percentage increase from the previous year’s highest single-game attendance number.

All fans wearing red will be admitted for $1.00.  Fairfield has reached out to local elementary schools as well and the school that has the best turnout will receive a thank you visit from the Stags.  In addition, the first 500 fans at the game will receive a Stags sling bag.  University students are also being encouraged to fill the “Red Sea” that evening.  The first 100 students at the game will receive a free t-shirt.  Each floor of the University’s residence halls will compete for the best attendance, with the winning floor receiving a pizza party in thanks for its support.

Fairfield and Niagara are meeting for the 41st time since the first contest between the two teams in the 1989-90 season, a Stags win, 97-49.  The Stags hold a 24-16 advantage all-time in the series, including winning the last three contests and five of the last six.  The Stags last lost to the Purple Eagles 63-59 at the Gallagher Center on Jan. 22, 2006.  Fairfield is 13-5 in the series at home, including a 9-3 record at Alumni Hall.  

The Stags won the first six meetings of the series, before Niagara struck for three straight wins, the first coming in 1992-93.  The teams split the next four games, alternating wins over a five-game stretch, with the Stags beginning a four-game win streak with a 66-63 win in Niagara Falls on Jan. 18, 1996, 66-63.  The Purple Eagles would win four of the next five meetings before the Stags started a five-game win streak, 79-66, on Jan. 16, 2000.  Niagara countered that with a five-game win streak of their own, from Feb. 10, 2002, through Jan. 11, 2004, leading to the Stags next win, 80-68 on Feb. 16, 2004, which began the stretch of Stags’ winning six of the last eight meetings.

The Stags host Canisius on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Alumni Hall.  Fairfield will travel to Iona on Feb. 5, before playing three home games, beginning on Feb. 10 at the Arena at Harbor Yard versus Manhattan.  The home schedule concludes the following weekend, Feb. 16 versus Siena and Feb. 18 versus Saint Peter’s, both of which will be televised.  Fairfield ends the season with three straight road games, at Manhattan, Siena and Loyola.