AMHERST, N.Y. – Daemen College basketball standouts
Caroline White (Fairport, N.Y.) and
Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) have been named the College's Student-Athletes of the Month presented by Western New York Knee and Orthopedic Surgery PC for December, 2019. It marks the second-straight month that both student-athletes have collected the honor.
White, a 5-foot-11 junior forward, led the Wildcats to a 4-1 record during the month of December. She started all five games and finished tied for the team lead in points per game (13.6), while averaging a team-high 8.4 rebounds per game. She scored in double figures in four of the five games and registered two double-doubles. She also led the team in minutes per game (37.4) and field goal percentage (.431).
She opened the month with back-to-back 14-point efforts in wins over rival Roberts Wesleyan College and Mercy College. She contributed seven points and six rebounds in a loss to nationally-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas College, before closing out the month with back-to-back double-doubles during wins over American International College and The College of Saint Rose during the Saint Rose Holiday Classic. She scored 12 points and equaled her career-high for rebounds in a game (14) during a 53-40 win over AIC, and totaled 21 points and 10 boards in a 78-57 win over Saint Rose. Her performance during the wins over AIC and Saint Rose earned her East Coast Conference Player of the Week week honors for the first time in her career.
White has started all 13 games this year and is averaging a team-high 14.5 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds per game. She also leads the team in minutes per game (34.5) and ranks second in field goal percentage (.484). She has scored in double figures 11 times and has already scored more points this season (189) than she did all of last season (188).
White has played in 68 of a possible 70 games over the past three seasons and has totaled 626 points and 357 rebounds. The Wildcats are 40-30 over her career—including a 28-13 clip since the start of the 2018-19 season.
Last year she helped Daemen to an 18-10 overall record, a second-place showing in the ECC regular-season standings (15-3) and a second-straight appearance in the ECC Tournament. This year the Wildcats are off to their best start (10-3) since opening the 2012-13 by winning 11 of their first 13 games.
Daemen (10-3, 2-1 ECC), which is ranked 10th in the latest Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) East Region media poll, is idle until the second weekend of January when it hosts Queens College (Jan. 10) and the University of Bridgeport (Jan. 12) in ECC games.
Sischo, a redshirt junior, led the nationally-ranked men's basketball team to a 4-1 record during the month. He started all five games and averaged an impressive 30.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. He scored over 25 points in all five games and reached 30 or more points three times. He racked up three double-doubles and shot 69-percent (64-93) from the field.
He opened the month with 34 points and 12 rebounds in an 89-59 rout of Salem University, and followed up with 27 points and 11 rebounds in a 96-70 win over Roberts Wesleyan. He played just 24 minutes in a 103-59 dismantling of Mercy, but still managed to rack up 26 points and nine boards. The Wildcats saw their 11-game winning streak come to an end two days later at nationally-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas College, but not before Sischo totaled 30 points and 13 rebounds. Sischo closed out the month in his hometown of Albany, N.Y. and the big man put on a performance with 34 points, seven rebounds and four steals in a 96-88 win over Saint Rose. Sischo took home ECC Player of the Week honors three of a possible four times during the month.
Sischo entered the 2019-20 season with high expectations after being named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year for the second-straight year. The 6-foot-9 center has more than lived up to the preseason hype, as he led the Wildcats to a 12-2 record while averaging 26.4 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. He is shooting 67-percent (146-219) from the field and has totaled 11 double-doubles. He ranks fifth among all Division II players in points per game and leads all Division II players in rebounds per game and double-doubles.
Sischo has been tabbed ECC Player of the Week five times this season and has now been an ECC weekly award recipient 22 times in his career. In addition to his 11 Player of the Week selections, he was an eight-time Rookie of the Week honoree during the 2017-18 season, and has earned three Defensive Player of the Week selections, including two this season. A two-time first-team All-ECC pick and the reigning ECC Player of the Year, he has played in 72 of a possible 74 games over his three-year career and has led Daemen to a 58-16 record. He has totaled 1,416 career points (19.7 per game) and 727 career rebounds (10.1 per game) and is one of only five players in program history to score 1,400 or more points and grab 700 or more rebounds. He averaged 20.9 points and 10.1 rebounds last year while leading the Wildcats to a 24-6 record and their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Daemen closed the month ranked among the top-20 Division II teams by both the Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) and the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).
Sischo and the Wildcats (12-2, 2-1 ECC) begin a three-game tour of New England this Wednesday (Jan. 1) when they visit regionally-ranked Saint Anselm College. Daemen will also play at Saint Michael's College (Jan. 2) and at Stonehill College (Jan. 4), before returning to ECC play the second weekend of January when they host Queens College (Jan. 10) and the University of Bridgeport (Jan. 12).
