AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's basketball team returns to the friendly confines of Lumsden Gymnasium for the first time in a month, as the Wildcats host fellow United States Collegiate Athletic Association member University of Maine-Fort Kent on Saturday (Dec. 1) at 4 p.m. before taking on Sheridan College of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association on Monday (Dec. 3) at 7:30 p.m.
 
Maine Fort-Kent and Sheridan will also play a neutral site game at Lumsden Gymnasium on Sunday (Dec. 2) at noon.
 
Daemen (8-3) will surely welcome the home-court advantage after traveling to Long Island, N.Y., northeast Indiana and Erie, Pa. the past three weekends.
 
Daemen is ranked sixth in the USCAA Division I poll released Nov. 16th. The new USCAA poll is unveiled Friday, Nov. 30.
 
The Wildcats stormed out of the gates, averaging 101 points in five wins over Canadian colleges. Over the past three weekends the Wildcats have gone 3-3 and averaged 71 points against NCAA and NAIA teams. They defeated Queens College (76-64) and lost a heart breaker (80-79) to Molloy College during the Molloy Tipoff Classic. Both teams are future East Coast Conference opponents. Daemen earned a hard-fought 75-72 win at Taylor University Nov. 16, before dropping a 76-67 decision to Indiana Wesleyan University less than 24 hours later. Indiana Wesleyan was ranked fourth nationally among NAIA Division II teams at the time. This past weekend the Wildcats defeated Virginia Union University (82-66) and lost to Gannon University (65-46) at the Gary Miller Classic hosted by Gannon.
 
Sophomore Gerald Beverly (Rochester, N.Y./Gates Chili) has been the most consistent performer for the Wildcats thus far. The 6-foot-7 forward has recorded seven double-doubles and leads the team in scoring (15.9 ppg), rebounding (8.6 rpg) and blocks (20). He is shooting 58-percent (61-105) and scored a career-high 28 points in the loss to Molloy. He was named to the all-tournament team following the Gary Miller Classic.
 
Fellow forwards Kadeem Johnson (Syracuse, N.Y./Henninger) and Jim Regan (Williamsville, N.Y./Nichols) have also produced. Johnson has scored in double figures eight times and recorded his third double-double of the year (14 pts, 11 rebs) in the loss to Molloy. He is shooting a team-high 66-percent (54-82) from the field and is averaging 11.5 points and 7.4 rebounds. Regan, who netted 18 points in the loss to Molloy, is shooting 59-percent (45-76) and is averaging 10.0 points and 5.4 rebounds. He stands 68 points shy of 1,000 for his career and needs just two blocks to become the fourth player in program history with 100 blocks.
 
Junior guard Casey Sheehan (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) scored 21 points in the win over Taylor and netted 19 in the win over Virginia Union. He is averaging 11.2 points and 3.3 assists. He has 230 career assists and stands just 21 assists shy of joining the program's Top-10 career assist leaders. Junior point guard Mark Coppola (Williamsville, N.Y./Williamsville South) is logging a team-high 28 minutes a game and is averaging 6.4 assists with a team-high 19 steals. He currently ranks third in career assists (336) among the program's all-time leaders.
 
Bench support has come in the form of sophomore Jordan Greene (Fort Edward, N.Y./South Glens Falls) and junior college transfers Uchechi Ogbonna (Hicksville, N.Y./Eric CC) and Alvin Satram (New Port Richey, Fla./Pasco-Hernando CC). Greene is averaging 8.9 points with a team-high 17 three-pointers. He made 6-of-8 triples and scored a career-high 24 points in the win over VUU, making him the first Daemen player to record six three-pointers in a game since Dom Mazzocchi went 6-of-15 in a 71-63 overtime loss to the University of Great Falls on Dec. 29, 2011 at the Las Vegas Shootout. Ogbonna has reached double figures in scoring four times and is averaging 9.0 points. Satram has drained 15 three-pointers and is averaging 6.3 points.
 
Friday's game will mark the sixth all-time meeting between Daemen and Maine Fort-Kent. Daemen has prevailed in each of the previous five meetings, including an 83-75 victory at the UMFK Bengal Classic last year. The teams last met in Lumsden Gym on Nov. 5, 2010 and Daemen rolled to an 88-44 victory.
 
Maine Fort-Kent is ranked 16th in the USCAA Division I poll.  UMFK returns just five players from last year's team that went 17-10 and advanced to the USCAA national tournament. The Bengals dropped to 0-6 following a 78-70 loss to Maine-Machias on Nov. 20th. Senior forward Yoshives Belizaire netted 20 points in the loss to Maine-Machias and leads the team in scoring (11.8 ppg) and rebounding (6.3 rpg). Sophomore guard Jorge Matesanz has made a team-high 12 three-pointers and is averaging 11.4 points. He drilled five three-pointers and totaled 19 points in a 65-55 loss to Lesley University. The Bengals are averaging 61.7 points per game.
 
Monday's game between Daemen and Sheridan will be the first-ever meeting between the schools.
 
Sheridan is a traditional power in the OCAA. The Bruins have averaged 28 wins over the past five seasons and have claimed five of the last 15 OCAA titles. Sheridan posted a 26-10 overall record last year (14-4 OCAA).
 
Sheridan (14-7, 8-1 OCAA) went 6-6 during its preseason non-league schedule and has won eight of its first nine OCAA games. Two of their non-league wins came against NCAA Division II members Quincy (74-73 OT) and Shippensburg (85-59). The Bruins took over first place in the OCAA West standings following a huge 84-75 victory over defending national champion Mohawk College Wednesday. Sheridan will play Humber College (Dec. 1) and Maine Fort-Kent (Dec. 2) before tipping off against Daemen (Dec. 3). Sophomore Michael Selkridge has put up some impressive offensive numbers thus far. The 6-foot-4 forward has scored at least 20 points in eight of Sheridan's nine OCAA games and netted 29 in the win over Mohawk. He is averaging 23.9 points per game. Additional production has come from senior guard Jamal McQueen (14.3 ppg, 9.0 rpg, 20 blks), junior guard Andrew Stephenson (9.6 ppg, 13 3pt fgs) and freshman forward Kadeem Hall (7.4 ppg). The Bruins are averaging 74.5 points per game.