WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Daemen College men's basketball team saw its 2015-16 season come to an end today as the second-seeded Wildcats fell to one of the hottest teams in the country, top-seeded Saint Thomas Aquinas College, 80-63 in the finals of the East Coast Conference Championship Tournament held at the University of the District of Columbia Sports Complex.

Daemen, which was making its first ECC tourney appearance in the program's initial season of postseason eligibility at the NCAA Division II level, ends the year at 19-10 overall, snapping a streak of four consecutive 20-win seasons.  Coach Mike MacDonald's squad had advanced to today's championship game with a thrilling 103-102 overtime victory last evening over sixth-seeded Mercy College after receiving a bye into the semifinal round.

The dream season for STAC continues as they claim the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II National Championships for the first time while making their third-straight appearance in the ECC title game.  The Spartan victory ends an eight-year span where the league championship was claimed by either University of Bridgeport or Long Island University Post.  The Spartans (26-4 overall), ranked No. 6 in the latest East Region rankings, have now emerged victorious in 20-straight ballgames by an average margin of 19.5 points per game.  STAC, which went 18-2 in league play during the regular season, including a pair of double-figure victories over the Wildcats, last lost on December 19 to LIU Post (75-66), the same team which they defeated in their semifinal round game yesterday, 85-58.  After cutting down the nets, they now await the announcement to be made later tonight of their opening round opponent in the East Regional portion of the national tournament.

STAC's Chaz Watler (Brooklyn, N.Y.), a 6-foot-2 juinor guard, scored 20 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished three assists and swiped a pair of steals to lead the Spartans today, earning Most Outstanding Player honors for the tourney in the process.  The Spartans also got a phenomenal game from redshirt-sophomore guard/forward Justin Reyes (Haverhill, Mass.), the 2015-16 ECC Player of the Year, who posted his league-best 18th double-double (19 points, 17 rebounds) of the season, while adding four assists, three blocks and three steals.  Sophomore guard Shaquille McFarlan (Mesic, N.C.) went 7-of-10 from the field and totaled 16 points to go with a team-high five assists, and freshman guard Jonathan Lawton (Williamstown, N.J.) chipped in with 11 points off the pine.  Both Reyes and McFarlan were named to the all-tournament team.

Daemen got big games from its top guns, senior guard/forward Torrence Dyck (Rochester, N.Y./San Jacinto College) and redshirt-junior forward Arif Mehmetaj (Jamaica, N.Y./SUNY Delhi).  Dyck, the league's regular season scoring champion, scored 22 points - his 18th 20-point game of the season - and grabbed six rebounds.  Mehmetaj struggled from the field for the second-straight game (3-for-14), but converted 10-of-12 from the charity stripe as part of his 16-point, 11-rebound outing for his seventh double-double of the season, and his first since February 5.  Dyck was named to the all-tournament team, as was reserve forward Ryan Grandits (Kenmore, N.Y./Medaille College).  Grandits, who scored 18 points in yesterday's semifinal win, was limited to just three points in seven minutes today due to an injury.

STAC blitzed their way to early leads of 8-0 and 18-6 in the game's opening minutes, converting five Daemen turnovers into 13 points in that span and prompting MacDonald to call timeout at the 12:48 mark.  Later, the lead ballooned to 16 points (28-12) after a layup by Lawton at the 9:22 mark.  A dunk by Reyes a short time later made the score 30-16.

That's when Daemen embarked on its biggest spurt of the game, outscoring STAC 26-13 in the final 8:12 of the half to pull within a point (43-42) at the break.  Grandits' three-pointer just prior to the under-eight-minute media timeout kick-started the Wildcat offense which received nine points from Mehmetaj in the run.  His two free throws with 57 seconds left  in the period brought Daemen as close as they'd been since the jump ball, and the Wildcats withstood a pair of STAC attempts on their final possession to head into the locker room trailing by just one.

Much like the start of the game, STAC torched the nets early in the second stanza, scoring 15 unanswered points to regain control.  Watler scored six points, and McFarlan had five in the spurt which was exclamated with a pair of slams by reserve forward Daniel Wilson (Baltimore, Md.).  Wilson's second dunk came at the 14:00 minute mark and it put the favorites ahead 58-42.  

Dyck finally stopped the bleeding for Daemen, hitting a pair of free throws with 13:22 to go.  He added a fastbreak layup at the 12:59 mark which ended an eight-and-a-half minute drought between field goals.  After two more Mehmetaj freebies, Dyck nailed a trifecta at the 11:48 mark to cap a 9-2 run that brought Daemen back within striking distance (60-51).

But, that's as close as they would get, despite holding the Spartans to just one field goal over the next six-plus minutes.  Daemen could not cut into the deficit as they misfired on 12 consecutive field goal attempts of their own before reserve forward Xavier Long (Brooklyn, N.Y./Williamsburg Prep) canned the first three-pointer of his career to end the drought at the 5:11 mark.  Mehmetaj hit a jumper a short time later to bring the Wildcats within 10 (67-57) with 4:30 to go.

STAC salted the game away with a 13-2 spurt over the next three minutes to open up its largest lead of the game at 80-59.  Two Reyes' buckets book-ended the game-clinching run.

The Spartans outscored Daemen 37-21 in the second half, limiting the Wildcats to 18-percent shooting (6-for-34) in the period.  For the game, Daemen hit just 20-of-66 field goal attempts (30-percent), including 8-of-29 from three-point range (28-percent).  STAC made good on 47-percent of its shots (33-for-70) and held big advantages in points off turnovers (23-9), second chance points (11-2) and points in the paint (46-20) to seal their wire-to-wire victory.

The game featured the ECC's two most successful teams in recent seasons.  STAC's 63 victories since the start of the 2013-14 season rank first among all ECC teams, while Daemen has claimed 62 wins in that span to rank second.  The head-to-head matchups have been all STAC of late though as the Spartans have now won five-straight.

Today's loss snapped a pair of Daemen winning streaks.  The Wildcats entered today as winners of four-straight games played in the month of March dating back to last season when MacDonald led the team to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) Division I national championship in their final year of non-eligibility for NCAA Division II postseason play.  It was also the program's first conference tournament loss since the 2009-10 season, dating back to the Wildcats' days as National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) affiliates.  Daemen had won three-straight conference tournament games - the final two games of its American Mideast Conference tenure in the 2011-12 season, and yesterday's ECC tourney win over Mercy.

The loss also meant the end to the careers of Grandits and Dyck.  Grandits, who played three seasons at Division III Medaille before transferring as a graduate student for this season, appeared in 27 games this season while making 12 starts.  He averaged 7.8 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting 45-percent from the field (62-for-137).  Including his time at Medaille, Grandits appeared in 107 games and totaled 910 points and 421 rebounds.  Dyck, who was named a first-team All-ECC selection for the second-straight year, ends the season with averages of 21.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, appearing in and starting 28 games.  His 612 total points this year ranks fifth all-time at Daemen for a single season.  He ends his two-year Wildcat career with 1,056 points in 51 games, the 18th highest total in team history, and third best among the program's two-year players.  His career scoring average of 20.7 points per game is the highest in team history.

Despite the loss of two key players, MacDonald's squad is set to bring back 16 players for next season, including incumbent starters Supreme Hannah (Rochester, N.Y./Eastridge) and Nick Petrucelli (Hicksville, N.Y./Thomasville Prep) who each missed significant time this season with injuries, its second leading scorer (Mehmetaj) and its triumvirate of freshmen - Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena), Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) and Darius Garvin (Elmira, N.Y./Notre Dame) - who each gained invaluable experience as starters this season.