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Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
sischo mbb vs felician 11.10.17
57
Felician FEL-M 0-1
62
Winner Daemen DAEM 1-0
Felician FEL-M
0-1
57
Final
62
Daemen DAEM
1-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Felician FEL-M 28 29 57
Daemen DAEM 28 34 62

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | By Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications

Wildcats Win 16th Consecutive Season Opener

AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's basketball team is off to a 1-0 start for the 16th consecutive season after defeating Felician University 62-57 this evening at Lumsden Gymnasium. The matchup between the Wildcats and Golden Falcons was the nightcap of the ECC-CACC Challenge presented by Western New York Knee and Orthopedic Surgery PC, a four-team event which pits East Coast Conference teams Daemen and Roberts Wesleyan College against their counterparts from the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (Felician and Nyack College).

Redshirt senior forward Aleks Miljenovic (Belgrade, Serbia) paced a balanced effort for the Wildcats with team-highs of 16 points and nine rebounds. Miljenovic shot 8-for-18 in the game, including 8-for-13 from two-point range.

Daemen placed three additional players in double figures. Redshirt junior guard/forward Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y.) played a team-high 34 minutes and contributed 14 points, seven rebounds, three steals, two assists and a blocked shot. Hamilton shot just 3-for-12 from the field, but he scored Daemen final eight points in the game, including a 6-for-7 showing from the charity stripe in crunch time. Redshirt sophomore forward Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.) chipped in with 12 points, four boards, three assists and three blocks. And, redshirt freshman center Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) came off the bench to score 11 points and grab five rebounds in just 10 minutes of action.

Felician was paced by redshirt junior guard Terrell Spaulding who posted a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Spaulding is the leading returning scorer among CACC teams. His production tonight came in 38 minutes worth of work, although he shot just 7-for-20 from the field, and 1-for-7 from downtown.

Gjaimeir Stanford and Zamir Wright each scored 11 points for the Golden Falcons.

After going to the half tied at 28-28, Daemen opened the second with a 12-4 blitz to open up an eight-point lead (40-32). Miljenovic scored a trio of baskets in the run which was bookended by three-pointers from Redband and junior guard Darius Garvin (Elmira, N.Y.).

Felician worked their way back with a 15-5 spurt, jumping ahead 47-45 on a jumper by Stanford at the 9:56 mark. The teams would go on to trade the lead three times over the next three-and-a-half minutes. Miljenovic's layup at the 6:25 mark gave Daemen a 51-50 lead, an advantage they would not relinquish for the remainder of the contest.

It was a six-point Daemen lead (58-52) with just over four minutes to play following a Hamilton layup, but Felician hung around. An old-fashioned three-point play by Spaulding with 1:10 remaining brought the Golden Falcons within one (58-57).

In the biggest possession of the game, Daemen came away with two offensive rebounds, both by Garvin, and Hamilton was eventually hacked as he went to the basket. He made good on both freebies to give Daemen a 60-57 lead with just 33 ticks left. Following a timeout, Spaulding's turn-around jumper in the lane was off the mark and Hamilton sealed the deal with two more free throws in the game's final 11 seconds.

The Wildcats survived despite shooting just 32.4 percent from the field (23-for-71) and 21.2 percent from three-point range (7-for-33). Felician wasn't much better at converting as the Golden Falcons made just 23-of-67 shots from the field (34.3 percent) and 6-for-28 from long distance (21.4 percent).

Redshirt sophomore guard Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y.), who missed all of the 2016-17 season with an injury, officially returned to the lineup today and dished out five of Daemen's 16 assists.

The Wildcats are now 6-1 all-time at the ECC-CACC Challenge. Today's five-point margin was Daemen's slimmest margin of victory at the event since an 88-80 defeat of Post University on Nov. 15, 2014. It was also Daemen's 10th win in 13 contests against CACC opponents since the Wildcats joined the ECC in 2013-14.

In the day's first game, Roberts Wesleyan scored just their second ECC-CACC Challenge win (in seven all-time contests), defeating Nyack 67-60. Newcomer Jean Toussaint shot 8-for-11 from the field and totaled 19 points and seven rebounds to lead the Redhawks (1-0). Carl Balthazar scored 13 points and added six board and four blocks in a losing effort for Nyack (0-1).

The ECC-CACC Challenge wraps up Saturday with two more games. Roberts Wesleyan takes on Felician at 2 p.m. and Daemen will meet Nyack at 4 p.m.

 
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