Men's Basketball 6/29/2018 9:19:00 AM By Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications

Miljenovic Signs To Play Professionally In Native Serbia

AMHERST, N.Y. - Aleks Miljenovic (Belgrade, Serbia), a 6-foot-6 forward for the Daemen College men's basketball team from 2015-18, has signed a two-year contract to continue his playing career at the professional level for Kosarkaski Klub Dunav Stari Bonavci of the Basketball League of Serbia, the country's top professional league. Additional terms of the contract were not disclosed. Miljenovic will join the team for the 2018-19 season which gets underway in mid-October.

Miljenovic proved to be an important part of Daemen's teams over the past few seasons. After beginning his career at rival Roberts Wesleyan College, Miljenovic sat out the 2015-16 season at Daemen per East Coast Conference transfer rules. In the two seasons that followed, Miljenovic helped the Wildcats go 41-17 overall (.707 winning percentage) and 27-9 in conference play (.750 winning percentage). In those seasons, he appeared in 57 games and made 18 starts while averaging 7.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, while shooting 50.8 percent from the field.

This past season was the finest of Miljenovic's collegiate career. He appeared in all 30 games during the Wildcats' 22-8 campaign, and produced career-highs in scoring (9.3 ppg), rebounding (4.8 rpg), field goal percentage (.514), assists (24), blocked shots (11) and steals (10). He produced double-figure scoring in a career-best 14 games, including both games of the season-opening ECC-CACC Challenge where he was named to the all-tournament team for the second consecutive year. Nine of his double-figure scoring games came as a reserve, giving veteran head coach Mike MacDonald a viable scoring threat off the bench.

"After transferring to Daemen, I felt great support from the coaching staff, teammates, and faculty," said Miljenovic. "Playing for coach MacDonald was a great experience on and off the court, and he helped me take away many important life lessons from my years in college. I am very honored to get the chance to come back home to Serbia and play professionally in their top league. I would like to wish Daemen basketball great success in the future and an ECC title in upcoming seasons."

"The fact that Aleks leaves Daemen with his degree and the opportunity to play professionally is something we are all very proud of," said MacDonald. "From the day he walked on here, Aleks had the goal of getting better every day and he did. He was in a lot of different situations with us in his three years here, and he handled all of them with class and always put the team first. We are hopeful that Aleks' experiences here have put him in a situation to be successful. His drive to become a pro was intense. He even missed graduation day so he could fly out to interview with a team."

Miljenovic is the fifth men's player from Daemen to sign a professional contract in the last four years. He joins Gerald Beverly (Telekom Baskets, Maccabi Rishon, Canton Charge, Liege Basket), Torrence Dyck (BC Boncourt Red, Olomoucko Prostejov, Island Storm, Niagara River Lions), Arif Mehmetaj (Golden Eagle Ylli) and Supreme Hannah (Rochester Razorsharks) who have transitioned to the professional ranks. He's also the second Daemen product to head overseas in 2018 joining former women's basketball player Sarah Saba (Lancaster, N.Y.) who will play for BBC Grengewald Hueschtert in Luxembourg.

"It's pretty cool that Aleks is the fifth guy in our four years here to sign a professional contract," said MacDonald. "In reality, it's a credit to our assistant coaches who have really helped develop our players to be the best they can be throughout the years."

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Players Mentioned

#3 Supreme Hannah: G; 6' 0"; Redshirt Senior

#21 Arif Mehmetaj: F; 6' 7"; Redshirt Senior

#23 Aleks Miljenovic: F; 6' 6"; Redshirt Senior

Players Mentioned

#3 Supreme Hannah
: 6' 0"; Redshirt Senior
: G

#21 Arif Mehmetaj
: 6' 7"; Redshirt Senior
: F

#23 Aleks Miljenovic
: 6' 6"; Redshirt Senior
: F

Players Mentioned

#3 Supreme Hannah

#21 Arif Mehmetaj

#23 Aleks Miljenovic

Players Mentioned

#3 Supreme Hannah

#21 Arif Mehmetaj

#23 Aleks Miljenovic