Natalie Galus returns for her senior season having started 80 out of Daemen's 81 games in the last three seasons

Women's Basketball 8/10/2016 11:45:00 AM

Banker Announces 2016-17 Women's Basketball Schedule

Wildcats Set To Log Miles With Eight Straight Road Games To Start The Season

AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College women's basketball team will open the 2016-17 season with eight consecutive road games before new head coach Jenepher Banker makes her Lumsden Gymnasium debut. Today, Banker announced the Wildcats' 2016-17 schedule which includes 26 regular season contests, 18 of which will come in East Coast Conference play.

"We are excited to play such a challenging schedule," said Banker who was introduced as the fourth head coach in the modern era of the Daemen program in mid-April. "The non-league portion includes an exhibition game against a Division I opponent as well as five teams which qualifed for their respective conference tournaments last season. The East Coast Conference produced four 20-win teams and two NCAA Tournament teams last season, and we expect the league to be very strong again this year. With a new coach and five incoming freshmen, we will be working hard to get ready for this difficult schedule."

The exhibition game that Banker alluded to comes on Wednesday, November 9 as the Wildcats make the short drive down Main Street to face Canisius College in an effort to tune-up for the regular season. It'll mark the second straight season that Daemen has opened with an exhibition game against a Division I opponent, following last year's 79-56 loss to University at Buffalo. The game will also be a return to the Koessler Athletic Center for Banker who served as an assistant on the Canisius staff in the mid-1990's.

Later that week, the ball gets tipped up for real with Daemen competing in the East Coast Conference-Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Challenge hosted by Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester. The four-team event features ECC members Daemen and Roberts Wesleyam against two counterparts from the CACC. This will be Daemen's second straight appearance at the event after going 1-1 there last season.

First up for the Wildcats is Felician College with tip-off slated for 6 p.m. on Friday, November 11 at the Voller Athletic Center. The Golden Eagles are looking to rebound after going 2-24 last season. The game will mark the first meeting between Daemen and Felician since November 21, 1997 - a 91-58 Daemen win behind the 21 points of Hall of Famer Sherry Laettner (Lackawanna, N.Y./Holy Angels).

Daemen's participation at the event concludes with a rematch from last year as they take on Nyack College at noon on Saturday, November 12. The Wildcats and Warriors met for the first time since 2003 at last year's event with Nyack gaining a 64-56 victory. The Warriors went on to finish 7-20 overall, qualifying for the CACC Tournament with a 5-14 league record.

Back-to-back Wednesday road games come when the Wildcats visit Edinboro University (November 16) and Notre Dame College (November 23). Daemen will be making its first trek to Edinboro since the 2009-10 season, and they'll be seeking retribution after suffering a gut-wrenching 87-84 defeat in overtime to the Fighting Scots here last December. Edinboro went on to finish 20-10 overall, including a 14-8 mark in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, bowing out of the PSAC Tournament in the quarterfinal round. The matchup with Notre Dame out of South Euclid, Ohio pits two former American Mideast Conference foes against one another for the first time since January 15, 2011 when senior forward Sarah Soroka (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora) doubled up with 17 points and 12 boards in a 53-49 Wildcat win. Daemen has been dominant in the series, winning 17 out of 19 all-time contests, although the Falcons are coming off a 20-10 campaign of their own last season, advancing to the semifinal round of the Mountain East Conference Tournament.

DAEMEN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL 2016-17 SCHEDULE BY THE NUMBERS
Total Games (including exhibitions)	27
Total Exhibition Games	1
Total Regular Season Games	26
Home Games	12
Road Games	12
Neutral Site Games	2
East Coast Conference Games	18
Non-Conference Games	8
Games vs. East Region Opponents	23
Games vs. Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Opponents	2
Games vs. Northeast-10 Conference Opponents	3
Games vs. Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Opponents	1
Games vs. Mountain East Conference Opponents	1
Games vs. Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Opponents	1
Games vs. 2015 NCAA Tournament Qualifiers	5
Games vs. 2015 Conference Tournament Qualifiers	17
Games vs. 2015 20-Game Winners	10

Thanksgiving weekend has Daemen continuing its season-opening string of road games by visiting Le Moyne College on Saturday, November 26. The Wildcats and Dolphins will be meeting for the third time in the last four seasons with the Wildcats seeking their first win in the series since 2004. Le Moyne scored a 74-58 win here last season, and an 80-68 triumph in the Wildcats' last trip to Syracuse in 2013. The Dolphins, an affiliate of the Northeast-10 Conference, went 13-14 overall last year, including a 10-10 mark in NE-10 play to qualify for the conference tournament where they exited in the quarterfinal round.

The ECC portion of Daemen's slate gets underway on Wednesday, November 30 with the Wildcats trekking to Long Island University Post. Daemen picked up its first-ever wins in the series last season, sweeping the teams' two matchups, including a tight 57-53 decision at Lumsden Gymnasium in late February. It was an odd year for the Pioneers in 2015-16, finishing 5-23 overall afer averaging 18.7 wins per season in the first seven years of coach Deirdre Moore's tenure.

Daemen's rigorous road stretch comes to an end with back-to-back Saturday contests, first at University of the District of Columbia on December 3 and second at Universityof Bridgeport on December 10. The UDC Firebirds swept the season series with Daemen for the third straight year in 2015-16, but couldn't capture their third straight NCAA Tournament bid after being bounced out of the ECC Tournament in the semifinals, finshing at 21-9 overall. Daemen and Bridgeport split their two meetings last year with the Purple Knights gutting out a 70-68 overtime win at home in mid-December, while the Wildcats rebounded with an 18-point defeat at Lumsden Gymnasium on Super Bowl Sunday.

Banker will make her long awaited home debut on Wednesday, December 14 against the defending ECC regular season champs from N.Y. Institute of Technology, kicking off a season-best six-game home-stand. The Bears, who went 26-9 last season, suffered just two league losses before being upset in the ECC Tournament semifinals by Roberts Wesleyan. But, the Bears' resume was good enough to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament where they advanced to the East Regional finals. The Bears enter the 2016-17 season having to replace ECC Player of the Year Dina Ragab (graduation) and head coach Anthony Crocitto who left to take the top post at Saint Leo University in central Florida.

The holiday season brings a trifecta of non-league opponents to Lumsden Gymnasium, beginning with Saint Anselm College, an NCAA tourney qualifier last season, on Monday, December 19. It'll mark the first-ever meeting between the Wildcats and Hawks. Saint Anselm finished 18-10 overall, including a 14-7 mark in NE-10 play last season.

Daemen hosts another NE-10 opponent in Saint Michael's College in the first of a back-to-back situation on Friday, December 30. The game is a return of the DC-SMC meeting in Vermont last season in which the home-standing Purple Knights came away with a 75-58 win. The following day, a New Year's Eve matinee is on tap as Lake Erie College of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference visits Lumsden Gymnasium. The Wildcats and Storm met last season for the first time since 1989-90; Daemen kept its unblemished record in the series intact with a 69-65 victory.

Banker's squad returns to ECC play to round out the home-stand against Mercy College (Monday, January 2) and Saint Thomas Aquinas College (Wednesday, January 4). Daemen split the season series with both opponents last year. Their back-to-back road wins over STAC and Mercy in mid-February were part of a season-best four game winning streak. The STAC Spartans were an ECC Tournament qualifier, finishing at 18-11 overall and 11-9 in league play.

The following week brings back-to-back games in the New York City metropolitan area as Daemen visits Queens College on Wednesday, January 11, and Molloy College on Saturday, January 14. Queens went 21-9 overall, winning the ECC Tournament crown before advancing to the East Regional semifinals. Daemen will be seeking its first-ever win against the Knights. Molloy, which also qualified for the ECC Tournament with an 11-9 league record last season, finished 12-17 overall which included a split of the series with the Wildcats. Daemen knocked down 10 three-pointers in an 87-68 win over the Lions at Lumsden Gymnasium last January.

The first trip through the ECC round robin schedule winds down with Daemen hosting longtime rival Roberts Wesleyan on Wednesday, January 18. The two former American Mideast Conference affiliates have met 59 times with the Wildcats owning a 39-20 edge all-time. The Redhawks scored a rare sweep last season as part of their magical 29-7 campaign. Under the direction of new head coach Gary Andrews, the Redhawks adanced to the ECC Tournament title game in just their second NCAA Division II postseason appearance. Although they fell to Queens, RWC's season continued at the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) level, winning that association's Midewest Regional before sweeping through three games at the national championships, including a 70-58 defeat of Colorado Christian University in the finals.

The game versus RWC marks the first of three straight at home for the Wildcats who host UDC (Saturday, January 21) and LIU Post (Wednesday, January 25) to tip-off the second round of the ECC slate. Additional home games in this round include bouts with Bridgeport (Thursday, February 2), Molloy (Saturday, February 18) and Queens (Saturday, February 22). Road games, which constitute four of the Wildcats' final seven contests, come against Mercy (Saturday, January 28), NYIT (Wednesday, February 8), STAC (Wednesday, February 15) and RWC (Saturday, February 25).

The Wildcats will be seeking their first-ever ECC Tournament berth which go to the top six teams in the final regular season standings. The ECC Tournament will feature a play-in round for the Nos. 3-6 seeds to be played on Wednesday, March 1 at the home site of the higher seed. The tournament semifinals and finals are slated for March 4-5 at Bridgeport's Hubbell Gymnasium.

Daemen is coming off a 9-17 campaign in 2015-16, including a 7-13 mark in ECC play. The Wildcats' season was derailed by a nine-game skid from late November through mid-January which included six losses by six points or less, before making a surge back into postseason contention with five wins in February. Although losing Raeann Stilwell (Cheektowaga, N.Y./St. Mary's of Lancaster), the program's all-time leader in three-point field goals, the Wildcats' roster features three returning starters including first-team All-ECC selection Sarah Saba (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster). Saba led the team and finished fourth in the league in scoring last season at 16.6 points per game. She'll be backed up by fellow returners Leah McDonell (North Tonawanda, N.Y./Cardinal O'Hara) and Natalie Galus (Hamburg, N.Y./Frontier) who combined to produce 17.5 points and 10.4 rebounds per game last season. McDonell has started all 81 of the team's games over the last three seasons while Galus has made 81 appearances with 80 starts.

For continuing coverage of the Daemen men's basketball program, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenWBB on Twitter.

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Players Mentioned

#13 Raeann Stilwell: G; 5' 3"; Senior

#33 Natalie Galus: F; 5' 11"; Senior

#25 Leah McDonell: G; 5' 6"; Senior

#11 Sarah Saba: G; 6' 0"; Junior

Players Mentioned

#13 Raeann Stilwell
: 5' 3"; Senior
: G

#33 Natalie Galus
: 5' 11"; Senior
: F

#25 Leah McDonell
: 5' 6"; Senior
: G

#11 Sarah Saba
: 6' 0"; Junior
: G