| THE LEAD |
| After playing four-straight conference games, the Daemen College women's basketball team takes a break from East Coast Conference competition and hosts Saint Anselm College in a non-league title Monday afternoon. |
| Â Â |
| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
 Â Â VS Â Â Â  |
| Â Â |
Date:Â Monday, Dec. 19
 |
Time:Â 1 p.m.
 |
Location:
Lumsden Gymnasium
Amherst, N.Y. |
| Â Â |
|
|
| Daemen Roster |
Saint Anselm Roster |
|
| Daemen Schedule |
Saint Anselm Schedule |
|
| Daemen Stats |
Saint Anselm Stats |
|
| ECC Website |
NE-10 Website |
D2 East Hoops Website |
| Â Â Â Â |
    |
|
| Â Â Â LIVEÂ STATS |
   LIVE VIDEO |
|
| Â Â Â Â Â |
| SOCIAL MEDIA |
| Daemen Twitter:Â |
@DaemenAthletics, @DaemenWBB |
| Daemen Hashtags:Â |
#DCWildcatNation, #WNYsD2Team, #LiveBreatheDaemen, #beFIERCE |
| Saint Anselm Twitter: |
@STAHawks |
| ECC Twitter: |
@ECCSports |
| NE-10Â Twitter: |
@TheNortheast10 |
| D2 East Hoops Twitter: |
@D2EastHoops |
| Â Â Â Â Â Â |
| MEET THE NEW BOSS |
| Jenepher Banker enters her first season as head women's basketball coach at Daemen…Banker comes to Daemen with nearly 30 years of coaching experience at various levels, ranging from Division I to high school…her first collegiate experience came as an assistant coach at Iowa State University (1986-88) and later as an assistant at Canisius College (1993-95)…between assistant coaching stops, Banker served as the head coach at Penn State-Behrend where she led the NCAA Division III program to a 67-61 overall record…her 1991-92 team went 23-4, winning the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) South Region championship…that team garnered Penn State-Behrend's first-ever national ranking in any sport…she was inducted into Penn State-Behrend's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994…Banker ultimately settled at the high school level, coaching the varsity team at Grand Island High School from 1998-2013, building the Lady Vikings into a regional contender with seven Section VI championships, four appearances in the Far West Regional, and one appearance at the New York State final four. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| SUCCESSFUL START TO BANKERÂ ERA |
| Daemen opened the season with wins over Felician (65-54) and Nyack (76-54) during the ECC / CACC Challenge at Roberts Wesleyan College…it marked Daemen's first 2-0 start since the 2013-14 season. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| DAEMEN SCOUTING REPORT (3-6, 1-3 ECC) |
| Daemen returns three starters and eight players from last year's team that posted a 9-17 overall record and a 7-13 mark in the East Coast Conference…key losses include shooting guard Raeann Stilwell and forward Somara Colon…Stilwell averaged 8.3 points last year and closed out her career with a program-record 243 three-pointers…Colon averaged 7.2 points and 5.9 rebounds…the Wildcats were voted ninth in the 2016-17 ECC preseason poll…junior Sarah Saba tops the list of returning players…she became the first-ever women's basketball player from Daemen to earn first-team All-ECC honors last winter after leading the team in points (432), rebounds (165), blocks (44) and steals (36)…seniors Leah McDonell and Natalie Galus also return…McDonell ranked second on the team in scoring (9.5 ppg) and assists (69) last year while also contributing 4.7 rebounds…Galus averaged 8.0 points and 5.7 rebounds and ranked second on the team in three-pointers (35) and blocks (39)…seniors Rachel Pawlak and Jesse DeWaters, juniors Taylor Heinold and Liz Miles and sophomore Erin Egan will provided quality depth…Miles averaged 19 minutes, 5.4 points and 5.7 rebounds last year…five freshmen join the fold, all with impressive credentials…guard Tiara Filbert was expected to make immediate contributions, but a preseason injury will sideline her for the entire season…she collected first-team Class A all-state honors and was named the All-Greater Rochester Player of the Year last winter after leading Batavia High School to its first-ever NYSPHSAA Section V title…the 5-9 guard averaged 19.3 points, 12.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 4.6 steals per game last year…Jordan Heinold joins her sister Taylor following an outstanding career at Immaculata Academy…the 6-foot G/F closed out her career as the school's all-time leading scorer and collected second-team Class B all-state and second-team All-Western New York honors last year…guards Carina Pringle, Alexis Perdue and Sydney Jones also join the fold…Pringle earned five varsity letters at Greece Athena High School, picking up two first-team All-Monroe County selections…Perdue comes to Daemen from Lindenhurst High School on Long Island..a ninth-team Class AA all-state selection last year, she was three-time all-league and all-county selection…Jones played five varsity seasons at Midlakes High School…she was a sixth-team Class B all-state pick last winter after averaging 19.6 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists…the 2015-16 Finger Lakes East Player of the Year, she was also a first-team All-Greater Rochester selection…Daemen opened the year with wins over Felician (65-54) and Nyack (76-54), before suffering five-straight losses to Edinboro (90-59), Notre Dame College (80-74), Le Moyne (77-68), LIU Post (69-59) and District of Columbia (56-54)…the Wildcats snapped the skid following a 72-68 win at regionally-ranked Bridgeport, and are coming off a 64-63 loss to New York Tech in the 2016-17 home-opener… Saba (16.3 ppg) and McDonell (16.0 ppg) have paced the Wildcats thus far…Saba scored a career-high 28 points in the loss to NYIT and is averaging a team-high 6.8 rebounds…McDonell scored a career-high 23 points in the win over Felician and netted 22 points in the win over Bridgeport…she leads the team in assists (3.0 apg) and steals (21)…Jordan Heinold (8.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg) scored 21 points in the loss to UDC and has made a team-high 18 three-pointers…Galus (6.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg) totaled 14 points and eight boards against Nyack, while Pringle (5.9 ppg) stuffed the stat sheet with 12 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals against Nyack. |
| Â Â |
| SAINT ANSELMÂ SCOUTING REPORT (5-4, 3-4Â NE-10) |
| Saint Anselm is located in Manchester, N.H. and is a long-time member of the Northeast-10 Conference…fourth-year head coach Julie Plant returns nine players and three starters from last year's team that finished 18-10 (14-7 NE-10) and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time since 1999…St. Anselm was voted second in the 2016-17 NE-10 Northeast Division preseason poll…the Hawks won their first three games, but are just 2-4 over their last six…St. Anselm plays at Roberts Wesleyan Sunday before visiting Lumsden Gym on Monday…senior guard Candice Andrews, a first-team All-NE-10 pick last year, leads the team in scoring (17.0 ppg), assists (4.6 apg) and steals (30)…she made 12-of-19 shots and scored 26 points in a 62-52 loss to Assumption on Dec. 6 and is shooting 50-percent (72-143) from the field overall…fellow senior Caitlyn Abela drained five three-pointers and scored 20 points in an early-season win over District of Columbia and is averaging 9.9 points with 16 three-pointers…sophomore Emma Daly made a program-record nine triples in a season-opening 99-57 win over Mercy and is averaging 9.0 points with a team-high 24 three-pointers…senior forward Kaila Duarte (8.1 ppg, 10.0 rpg) and junior guard Ali Glennon (6.8 ppg) have also produced. |
| Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â |
| THE HISTORY vs. SAINT ANSELM |
| Monday's game will mark the first-ever meeting between Daemen and Saint Anselm in women's basketball. |
| Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â |
| THAT'S A FIRST |
| Daemen's 72-68 win at Bridgeport this past weekend marked the first time since the Wildcats started playing a predominantly NCAA Division II schedule in 2013-14 that they have defeated a team ranked in the D2SIDA Division II East Region media poll…Bridgeport entered the game riding a seven-game winning streak and ranked fourth in the region. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| DID YOU KNOW? |
| Seniors Natalie Galus and Leah McDonell have been a constants in the starting lineup since their freshman season…Galus has started 86 of a possible 90 games over the past four seasons and has totaled 838 points, 580 rebounds and 165 blocks over her career…she ranks fifth among Daemen's all-time leaders in career blocks…McDonell has started all 90 games and has racked up 766 points, 420 rebounds, 218 assists and 80 steals…she established career-highs for points (248), assists (69) and steals (34) in a season last year. |
| Â Â |
| SABA SET TO JOIN 1,000-POINT CLUB |
| Sarah Saba has scored in double figures in 55 of her 64 career games and stands just 10 points shy of becoming the 23rd player in program history to score 1,000 points…she became the first-ever women's basketball player from Daemen to earn first-team All-ECC honors last winter…Saba closed out the 2015-16 season as Daemen's leader in points (432), rebounds (165), blocks (44) and steals (36), and became the first player since former great Sarah Soroka in 2010-11 to lead the team in points, rebounding, blocks and steals…Saba has played in all 64 games over the past three seasons (61 as a starter) and has totaled 990 points (15.5 ppg) and 436 rebounds (6.8 rpg). |
| Â Â |
| ON THE HORIZON |
| The Wildcats are idle until the end of the month when they begin a stretch of four-straight home games in the span of six days…Daemen will close out non-conference play by hosting Saint Michael's College (Dec. 30) and Lake Erie College (Dec. 31), and will return to ECC play by hosting Mercy College (Jan. 2) and Saint Thomas Aquinas College (Jan. 4). |
