AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen College men's basketball players Torrence Dyck (Rochester, N.Y./San Jacinto College) and Arif Mehemtaj (Jamaica, N.Y./SUNY Delhi) have been named to the East Coast Conference 2015-16 all-conference team.  Dyck was a first-team selection, while Mehmetaj earned second-team honors following a vote of the league's 11 head coaches.  The official announcement was made last evening during the ECC Championship Tournament banquet held in Washington, D.C. ahead of this weekend's games there.

The duo of Dyck and Mehmetaj has led Daemen to an 18-9 overall record, including a 14-6 mark in ECC play this season.  The Wildcats' league record was good enough to clinch the No. 2 seed and a bye into the semifinal round of the ECC Championship Tournament, the Wildcats' first-ever conference tournament berth at the NCAA Division II level.  Together, Dyck and Mehmetaj constitute the league's second highest scoring tandem, combining for 37.3 points per game.

Dyck, a 6-foot-5 senior guard/forward, becomes Daemen's second two-time first-team All-ECC honoree, joining former Wildcat Gerald Beverly.  He averaged 19.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 23 games last season before being sidelined with a season-ending injury, and was still voted as a first-team all-league performer.  This year, Dyck came back from the injury better than ever, leading the ECC in scoring (21.8 ppg) while upping his other numbers to team-bests of 6.6 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.  Dyck has scored in double figures in all but one game this season, posting 16 games of 20 or more points and four 30-point outings.  His six double-doubles are tied with Mehmetaj for the team lead.

Dyck opened the season by being named to the all-tournament team at Daemen's home tournament, the ECC-CACC Challenge.  He scored 29 points on 10-of-13 shooting in the Wildcats' season-opening victory over Wilmington University (Del.), and followed up with 23 points in a four-point loss to regionally-ranked Holy Family University the following day.

A 27-point performance in a home loss to St. Thomas Aquinas College on Jan. 7 kick-started a string of nine-straight 20-point games for Dyck.  On Jan. 9, he netted 30 points, including 5-of-6 shooting from three-point range, in a home-court victory over Mercy College which began the Wildcats' season-best nine-game winning streak, vaulting them into the D2SIDA East Region media poll for the first time on Feb. 8.  During the winning streak, Dyck averaged 26.3 points per game.

Dyck scored 18 of his career-high 35 points in the final six minutes of Daemen's incredible come-from-behind victory at Roberts Wesleyan College on Jan. 12.  He scored a driving layup with four seconds remaining to complete the comeback, as Daemen rallied from a 22-point second-half deficit to win 98-96.

Dyck was a two-time ECC Player of the Week this season, and his performance in the win at RWC spurred him on to Division II National Player of the Week honors as dubbed by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

He was joined on the All-ECC first-team by University of Bridgeport's Devon Elliott, Long Island University Post's Jared Hall, Dowling College's Chris Millender and both Justin Reyes and Chaz Watler from the ECC regular-season champ St. Thomas Aquinas.

Mehmetaj is a 6-foot-7 redshirt-junior forward who also returned to the Daemen lineup this year after having his 2014-15 season cut short by an injury just three games in.  The junior college transfer has played a solid Robin alongside Dyck's Batman all season long, averaging 15.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.0 blocks per game.  Not your typical "five man", Mehmetaj does lead the team in total blocks (27) but also leads in three-point field goals (47) and ranks second in total assists (63).  He's shooting 47-percent from the field and 43-percent from three-point range so far this season.

Like Dyck, Mehmetaj began the season by earning all-tournament team honors at the ECC-CACC Challenge after posting a pair of 20-point outings.  That included a 24-point, 17-rebound performance - his first of six double-doubles this season - in the second-day loss to Holy Family.  Mehmetaj would go on to post nine 20-point games this season.

He hit five first-half three-pointers as part of a 26-point effort in Daemen's road win at Dowling on Dec. 18.  In the Wildcats second matchup with the Golden Lions on Feb. 5, Mehmetaj hit 6-of-8 shots from the long range to register a career-best 30 points in a four-point Daemen victory.

Mehmetaj ended the regular season ranked 11th in the league in scoring, 14th in rebounding and seventh in three-point field goal percentage.

Dyck and Mehmetaj lead the Wildcats in search of a conference championship in our nation's capital this weekend, beginning with tonight's semifinal round matchup with sixth-seeded Mercy at 7:30 p.m. from the UDC Sports Complex.