| THE LEAD |
| The Daemen College men's basketball team hits the road for the first time this season, heading southwest to face Edinboro on Wednesday...the Wildcats are off to a 3-0 start this season and they'll be looking to deliver the 300th win in the career of head coach Mike MacDonald. |
| Â Â |
| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
 Â Â Â Â VS Â Â Â  Â Â Â Â Â |
| Â Â Â |
Date:
Wednesday, November 23 |
Time:Â
1:00 p.m. |
Location:Â
McComb Fieldhouse - Edinboro, Pa. |
| Daemen Roster |
Edinboro Roster |
|
| Daemen Schedule |
Edinboro Schedule |
|
| Daemen Stats |
Edinboro Stats |
|
| LIVE STATS |
|
|
| Â Â Â |
| SOCIAL MEDIA |
| Daemen Twitter:Â |
@DaemenAthletics, @DaemenMBB |
| Daemen Hashtags:Â |
#DCWildcatNation, #WNYsD2Team, #LiveBreatheDaemen, #beFIERCE |
| Edinboro Twitter:Â |
@BoroAthletics |
| Â Â |
| RETURN OF THE MAC |
| Local hoops fixture Mike MacDonald returns to the bench for his third season as Daemen's head coach, and his 20th season overall as a collegiate head coach...in his first two seasons on the job, MacDonald has led the Wildcats to a 40-20 overall record...in his first season at the helm, MacDonald led Daemen to a 21-10 campaign which concluded with the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division I national championship...he followed that up by leading Daemen to a 19-10 record and the program's first-ever postseason berth at the NCAA Division II level, qualifying for and advancing to the finals of the East Coast Conference Tournament...prior to beginning his stint at Daemen, MacDonald transformed the Division III program at Medaille into a perennial power, averaging 18 wins per season and advancing to the postseason six times in his eight years as head coach...MacDonald made his head coaching debut at the Division I level, leading the program at Canisius from 1997-2006...while there, MacDonald's teams racked up 108 wins making him the third all-time winningest coach in the program's history...the longtime bench boss opens the 2016-17 season with a career record of 296-246. |
| Â Â |
| DAEMEN SCOUTING REPORT (3-0, 0-0 ECC) |
| Daemen returns 12 players from its 2015-16 team which went 19-10 overall and 14-6 in East Coast Conference play, finishing second in the final regular season standings to earn the No. 2 seed in the ECC Tournament as the Wildcats made their first-ever postseason appearance at the NCAA Division II level...after receiving a bye into the semifinal round of the tourney, Daemen scored a wild 103-102 (OT) victory over sixth-seeded Mercy to advance to the ECC Tournament finals where their season came to an end with an 80-63 loss to top-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas...for the second straight year, the Wildcats open the season after graduating one of the top players in team history...last year at this time, the Wildcats were learning about life without two-time ECC Defensive Player of the Year Gerald Beverly...this time around, the Wildcats are without 6-foot-5 wing Torrence Dyck who led the ECC in scoring last season (21.9 ppg)...among the team's returners are five players who started at least 12 games last season, and a sixth - redshirt-senior guard Supreme Hannah - who was limited to just four games last year after making 28 starts in 2014-15...the group of returners is headlined by redshirt-senior forward Arif Mehmetaj who earned second-team All-ECC honors last season after averaging 15.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game...Mehmetaj posted nine 20-point games and a team-best seven double-doubles last season while leading the team with 47 three-point field goals...he finished 12th in the league in scoring, 14th in rebounding and ninth in free throw percentage (80.2)...Hannah was averaging 11.5 points and 3.0 assists per game before he went down with a season-ending injury...he logged 33.4 minutes per game in 2014-15, averaging 10.5 points and 3.9 assists per game that season...redshirt-sophomore wing Deion Hamilton was a two-time ECC Rookie of the Week selection last season...he chipped in 8.0 points per game, including an average of 11.2 points in his 17 starts...among the team's new additions this season, redshirt-freshman Jeff Redband is expected to make an immediate impact...the Wildcats were picked fifth in the ECC preseason poll...Daemen opened the 2016-17 season with a pair of wins at their own tournament - the ECC-CACC Challenge...a 75-64 win over Caldwell on Nov. 11 was Daemen's 15th straight in a season opener...a 60-49 defeat of Dominican followed on Nov. 12...Hannah collected tournament MVP honors after posting 17.5 points and 4.0 assists per game...he matched a career-high with nine field goals in the win over Dominican, producing 21 points - the third 20-point game of his career...Hannah was joined on the all-tournament team by Hamilton (14.5 ppg, 69% FG) and Aleks Miljenovic (11.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg)...the Wildcats are coming off a 74-64 defeat of St. Edward's this past Saturday, pushing out to a 3-0 start for the first time since the 2012-13 season...Miljenovic recorded his first double-double, posting career-highs of 21 points and 12 boards...Hamilton added 18 points and Redband chipped in with 15...through three games, Hamilton leads the team in scoring at 15.7 points per game while connecting on 61-percent of his field goal attempts...Miljenovic has canned 16-of-30 shots and is averaging 14.7 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds per game...Hannah leads the team with six thre-pointers and 13 assists, and he's averaging 13.3 points per outing...additional production is coming from sophomore guard Darius Garvin (9.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 2.3 apg) and Redband (8.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg)...the Wildcats expect their lineup to be bolstered on Wednesday when Mehmetaj and senior guard Jaleo Wilkes make their regular season debuts. |
| Â Â |
| EDINBORO SCOUTING REPORT (2-2, 0-2 PSAC) |
| Edinboro is a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference...the Fighting Scots are led by fourth-year head coach Pat Cleary who took the reins of the program after spending 14 years there as an assistant...since taking over, Cleary has led the Fighting Scots to a 41-42 record to date, and a pair of PSAC Tournament appearances...Edinboro returns just six players from their 2015-16 team which went 15-11 overall and 14-8 in PSAC play which was good for a third-place finish in the PSAC West Division...among the returners is first-team All-PSAC West pick Jaymon Mason, a 6-3 redshirt-junior guard...Mason led the Fighting Scots and ranked second among all PSAC players in scoring last season, averaging 20.8 points per contest...after Mason, EU brings back three players who averaged double-figure minutes last season in senior guard Sheldon Brogdon (15.4 mpg, 5.6 ppg, 34% 3PT), junior guard/forward Mike Beck (24.4 mpg, 4.3 ppg, 37% 3PT) and senior guard/forward Mikael Anderson (12.8 mpg, 4.2 ppg)...the Fighting Scots were picked fifth in the PSAC West preseason poll, and Mason grabbed PSAC West preseason all-conference honors...EU opened the season with back-to-back wins, defeating Division III Thiel (90-74) and Lake Erie (87-75), before suffering defeats in their PSAC openers at Millersville (79-71) and Shippensburg (105-73)...Mason has picked up right where he left off and is averaging a team-best 19.3 points per game...he scored 31 points in the win over Lake Erie, and registered the 1,000th point of his career in the loss to Millersville...Mason is tossing in 6.0 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game as well...Anderson has stepped up to produce 11.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game thus far...the Fighting Scots feature four players averaging at least 8.3 points, led by newcomer Malachy Onwudiegwu, a Division I transfer from Alcorn State who is posting 9.8 points per game off the bench...Beck has started all four contests and is contributing 8.8 points while shooting a blistering 8-of-12 from three-point range...additional production has come from 6-9 center Andre Frederick (8.8 ppg, 8.8 rpg), a Division I transfer from Robert Morris, and Chibunna Ukandu (8.3 ppg). |
| Â Â |
| DAEMEN VS. EDINBORO: THE HISTORY |
| All-Time:Â Daemen leads the all-time series 1-0 |
| Previous Meetings: |
| Dec. 12, 2015 - Daemen 88, Edinboro 79 |
(@ Daemen) |
GAME RECAP | BOX SCORE |
| Â Â Â Â |
| A MOST VALUABLE RETURN |
| The 2016-17 season openers marked the return of redshirt-senior guard Supreme Hannah to the Daemen lineup...Hannah, who missed the final 25 games last season and both exhibition contests in early November, did not disappoint as he collected Most Valuable Player honors for the ECC-CACC Challenge...in a 75-64 win over Caldwell on Nov. 11, Hannah scored 14 points and dished a team-high four assists in helping Daemen capture its 15th consecutive win in a season opener...he followed that with a 21-point, four-assist outing in an 11-point dispatching of Dominican on Nov. 12, while logging a game-high 37 minutes...the output marked the third 20-point game of his career and he tied a career-high with nine field goals...Hannah has made 35 consecutive starts in games that he's appeared in, dating back to the 2014-15 season...since the start of that season, Hannah is averaging 10.9 points and 3.8 assists per game. |
| Â Â |
| BULLISH EFFORTÂ |
| In an exhibition game vs. Division I Buffalo on Nov. 4, Daemen led for more than 12 minutes in the second half before falling by five (87-82) in overtime...it marked the second time in the last three seasons that Division II Daemen has taken a Division I opponent to overtime in exhibition action...the last time ended in an 83-81 win in Mike MacDonald's Daemen debut which just happened to come in his return to the Koessler Athletic Center where he coached Canisius for 18 seasons, including nine as the head coach...this time around, redshirt-freshman Jeff Redband hit his sixth three-pointer with 26 ticks remaining to erase the Bulls' three-point lead and send the game to overtime...Redband finished with a team-high 22 points...in the overtime period, Darius Garvin hit a three-pointer with 1:15 left to pull the Wildcats within one (82-81) but, after a UB turnover, his go-ahead jumper attempt was off the mark, and the Bulls answered with an old-fashioned three-point play to essentially put the game out of reach...Deion Hamilton netted 16 points for the Wildcats, while Arif Mehmetaj and Jaleo Wilkes chipped in with 15 and 12 points, respectively. |
| Â Â |
| PSAC PESTS |
| Wednesday's game versus Edinboro marks the first of three straight for Daemen against opponents from the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference...the Wildcats are just 3-6 against PSAC teams dating back to the 2008-09 season...wins in that stretch have come over Gannon (67-65 on Nov. 25, 2011), Mercyhurst (69-63 on Nov. 23, 2013) and Edinboro (88-79 on Dec. 12, 2015). |
| Â Â |
| 20/20 |
| Daemen's 19-win season in 2015-16 snapped a string of four-straight 20-win seasons...the Wildcats have registered at least 20 wins nine times in the last 14 seasons...the high-water mark in that stretch was the Wildcats' 27-6 campaign in 2012-13 when they played an independent schedule while transitioning to NCAA Division II. |
| Â Â Â |
| DID YOU KNOW? |
| Daemen's Aleks Miljenovic has scored in double figures in all three games so far this season...the 6-foot-5 redshirt-junior recorded just one double-figure scoring game while playing two seasons for Roberts Wesleyan before transferring to Daemen. |
| Â Â |
| ON THE HORIZON |
| The Wildcats continue a busy stretch by hosting Slippery Rock (Friday, Nov. 25) before visiting Mercyhurst (Sunday, Nov. 27). |
