AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen College men's basketball player Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) has been named the East Coast Conference Rookie of the Week for games played January 25-31.  The official announcement came via the ECC's weekly men's basketball report released this afternoon from conference heaquarters in Central Islip, N.Y.

Sarkis, a 6-foot-1 freshman guard, helped Daemen (12-6, 8-3 ECC) to a key ECC road win at University of the District of Columbia last Friday (January 29) in the Wildcats' only game of the week.  The win, which came by the way of a 100-89 final score, was Daemen's seventh-straight, propelling them into second place in the league standings when combined with other results around the league this past weekend.  It also avenged an earlier home loss to UDC in mid-December, and moved the Wildcats to 5-1 in ECC road games this season.

Sarkis scored a career-high 19 points while adding five assists, four rebounds and two steals in the victory.  He connected on 7-of-11 shots from the field, including 2-of-3 from three-point land.

Sarkis' production Friday represented the fifth double-figure scoring game of his rookie campaign, including the last two-in-a-row.  His previous career-best was 15 points scored in a 69-60 non-league win at Dominican College on January 2.

For the season, Sarkis is contributing 7.8 points, 2.4 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game.  He's also second on the team in steals (17) and has started the last 15 games, giving him the most starts of any Daemen freshman since Casey Sheehan (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) made 21 during the 2010-11 season.  He is shooting 51-percent from the field (47-for-92) and ranks fourth in the league in three-point field goal percentage (.449) having knocked down 22-of-49 shots from long distance this season.

The announcement today marked Sarkis' third ECC Rookie of the Week selection this season.  He had previously earned the honor for games played November 23-29 and December 28-January 3.  It also marked the second-straight week that a Daemen player has earned the honor; redshirt-freshman guard/forward Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) earned the accolade for games played January 19-24.  Daemen is the only team in the league with multiple players having been selected for Rookie of the Week honors, and the Wildcats' four overall selections leads the league.

Sarkis and the Wildcats are back in aciton this Friday, February 5 for a 7 p.m. tip-off against league foe Dowling College at Lumsden Gymnasium.