AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen College men's basketball player Arif Mehmetaj (Jamaica, N.Y./SUNY Delhi) has been named the East Coast Conference Player of the Week, and his teammate, Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) has been named the ECC Rookie of the Week, both for games played January 19-25.  The announcement was made late this afternoon from ECC headquarters in Central Islip, N.Y. via the league's weekly men's basketbal report.

Mehmetaj and Hamilton led Daemen to a pair of home conference wins last week, extending the Wildcats' season-best winning streak to six games - the second longest such streak among all East Region teams presently.  Daemen raced past visiting Molloy College last Friday night (81-64), and concluded the week with a 107-96 victory against Queens College on Sunday, holding off a furious second-half rally from the Knights, to improve to 11-6 overall and 7-3 in the league.

Mehmetaj, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, averaged 22.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 blocks per game while shooting 70-percent from the field (14-for-20) in last week's wins.  

Against Molloy, Mehmetaj narrowly missed his fifth double-double of the season after posting 19 points and nine rebounds.  He added five assists and a pair of blocks while shooting efficiently from the field (5-for-8), three-point range (2-for-3) and the free throw line (7-for-10).

On Sunday versus Queens, Mehmetaj hit 9-of-12 field goal attempts, including a perfect 7-for-7 on two-point baskets, en route to a team-high 25 points.  The scoring production was one off his career-best total set earlier this season in an ECC road win at Dowling College on December 18.  It was also his seventh game this season with 20 or more points, and his first since scoring 25 in an ECC road loss at University of Bridgeport on December 20.

For the season, Mehmetaj leads the Wildcats in rebounding (6.3 rpg) and three-point field goals (33), and he ranks fifth in the conference in scoring (17.3 ppg).  

The announcement today marked Mehmetaj's second ECC Player of the Week selection, having previously earned the distinction for November 9-15 - the opening week of the regular season.  It's also the fourth time this season, and the second-straight week, that a Daemen player has been named ECC Player of the Week.  Senior guard/forward Torrence Dyck (Rochester, N.Y./San Jacinto College), like Mehmetaj, has been a two-time recipient so far this season (December 7-15 and January 11-18).

Hamilton, a 6-foot-4 redshirt-freshman guard/forward, continued his fine play of late, averaging 11.5 points and 3.0 rebounds per game while shooting 67-percent from the field (8-for-12) and 80-percent from three-point range (4-for-5) last week.

After scoring nine points in 21 minutes versus Molloy, Hamilton went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, including 3-for-3 from three-point land, en route to a career-high 14 points in the win over Queens.  It was Hamilton's second double-figure scoring game of the season, and both have come in the last two weeks.

Hamilton, whose insertion into the starting lineup six games ago coincides with the Wildcats' recent win streak, has seen his production increase steadily since his ascent into the top five of coach Mike MacDonald's rotation.  Hamilton had appeared in seven of the team's first 11 games, averaging just 1.1 points and 1.0 rebound in 6.3 minutes per game.  Since entering the starting lineup, Hamilton is putting up 8.3 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.0 block in 21.3 minutes per game game while shooting 46-percent from the field (17-for-37) and 44-percent from three-point range (8-for-18).

Hamilton becomes the second Daemen player to earn ECC Rookie of the Week honors this season.  True freshman guard Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena), a high school teammate of Hamilton's, has earned the distinction twice this season (November 23-29 and December 28-January 3), and Daemen is the only team in the league with multiple Rookie of the Week honorees thus far.

Mehmetaj and Hamilton lead Daemen into the second round of the ECC slate this week as the Wildcats visit University of the District of Columbia on Friday night (7 p.m., January 29) when they'll attempt to avenge a loss to the Firebirds from earlier this season.