| THE LEAD |
| The Wildcats will play the second of three-straight regionally-ranked opponents when they travel to Queens College for an East Coast Conference game Wednesday (Jan. 11)…Queens is the two-time defending ECC Tournament champion and was a unanimous pre-season pick to win a third-straight conference title this year. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
 Â Â Â VS Â Â Â  |
Date:Â Wednesday, Jan. 11
 |
Time:Â 7:30 p.m.
 |
Location:
Fitzgerald Gymnasium
Flushing, N.Y. |
| Daemen Roster |
Queens Roster |
|
| Daemen Schedule |
Queens Schedule |
ECC Website |
| Daemen Stats |
Queens Stats |
D2 East Hoops Website |
| Â Â Â Â |
|
|
| Â Â Â LIVEÂ STATS |
  LIVE VIDEO |
|
| Â Â Â |
| SOCIAL MEDIA |
| Daemen Twitter:Â |
@DaemenAthletics, @DaemenWBB |
| Daemen Hashtags:Â |
#DCWildcatNation, #WNYsD2Team, #LiveBreatheDaemen, #beFIERCE |
| Queens Twitter: |
@QCKnights, @QCKNIGHTS_WBB |
| ECC Twitter: |
@ECCSports |
| D2 East Hoops Twitter: |
@D2EastHoops |
| 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 |
| DAEMEN SCOUTING REPORT (5-9, 2-4Â 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 named the Suffolk County League Rookie of the Year after her freshman season and went on to add three all-league and all-county selections…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…the Wildcats snapped the skid following a 72-68 win at regionally-ranked Bridgeport on Dec. 10…Daemen returned to league play with a win over Mercy (79-66) and a loss to regionally-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (65-55) last week…Saba and McDonell and have paced the Wildcats thus far…Saba has scored in double figures in 13 of 14 games this season and leads the team in points per game (16.4 ppg) and rebounds per game (7.5)…he ranks fourth among the ECC leaders in scoring average and 12th in rebounding…McDonell equaled her career-high for points (23) in a loss to Saint Anselm and netted 22 points in the win over Bridgeport…she ranks second in scoring (15.7 ppg) and assists (2.7 apg) and leads the team in steals (30)…Jordan Heinold has started 12 games and is averaging 8.4 points and 5.3 rebounds with a team-high 26 three-pointers…she drilled five three-pointers and scored 21 points in a loss to UDC and also drained five triples and scored 18 points in a win over Lake Erie…Galus (7.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg) totaled 13 points and five blocks in the loss to STAC, while Pringle (6.7 ppg) scored a season-high 13 points in the loss to STAC and leads the team in assists (2.8 apg)…DeWaters (18) and Jones (15) both established career-highs for points during the win over Mercy. |
| Â Â |
| QUEENSÂ SCOUTING REPORT (12-3, 6-1Â ECC) |
| Queens returns seven players and three starters from last year's team that finished 21-9 overall (15-5 ECC), claimed the ECC Tournament title for the second-straight year and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the second-straight season…Queens was voted first in the 2016-17 ECC preseason poll and is ranked third in the D2SIDA East Region poll…the Knights have won seven of their last nine games and enter Wednesday night riding a four-game winning streak…QC took over sole possession of first place in the ECC standings following a 71-66 win at St. Thomas Aquinas this past Saturday…senior G/F Madison Rowland and her red-shirt senior F/C sister MacKenzie top the list of returning players…Madison, a two-time All-American and three-time first-team All-ECC pick, totaled 29 points, nine rebounds and four steals in a 79-62 win over Bridgeport last week…she leads the ECC in scoring average (21.1 ppg) and steals (5.3 spg) and ranks fourth among the league leaders in rebounding (9.5 rpg) and assists (3.6 apg)…she enters Wednesday's game just six points shy of 2,000 for her career and is set to become just the fourth women's basketball player in ECC history to score 2,000 points…MacKenzie, a three-time All-ECC pick, totaled 28 points and 15 rebounds in a recent 70-56 win over Le Moyne…she ranks second in the league in scoring (18.3 ppg) and leads the league in rebounding (10.3 rpg) and double-doubles (9)…freshman guard Beth Bonin has also produced…a two-time ECC Rookie of the Week selection, she has made a team-high 35 three-pointers and is averaging 12.8 points…additional production has come from junior guard Merrick Rowland (7.0 ppg, 23 3pt fgs) and sophomore guard Kaitlyn Mahon (3.7 ppg, 3.3 apg)…Merrick Rowland drilled six three-pointers and scored a season-high 20 points in the win over STAC. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| THE HISTORY vs. QUEENS |
| All-Time: Queens leads 6-0 |
| Streak:Â Lost 6 |
| Previous Meetings: CLICK HERE |
| Last Meeting: Queens 76, Daemen 65 | Feb. 28, 2016 | Flusing, N.Y. |
| Last Meeting Highlights: MacKenzie Rowland registered a triple-double to lead regionally-ranked Queens to a 76-65 victory over Daemen at Lumsden Gym…Rowland totaled 18 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists for the visitors…it marked the 2015-16 finale for Daemen, which got 15 points and six rebounds from Sarah Saba…it also marked the final game in the outstanding career of Raeann Stilwell, who closed out her career ranked ninth among the program's career scoring leaders with 1,340 points…she canned three three-pointers during the game and in the process broke the program record for most career three pointers (243)—eclipsing the previous record of 242 set by Jessica Ruddell from 2001 to 2005. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| THAT'SÂ A FIRST |
| Daemen's 72-68 win at Bridgeport 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 East Region poll…Bridgeport entered the game riding a seven-game winning streak and ranked fourth in the region. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| CLOSE CALLS |
| Nine of Daemen's last 11 games have been decided by 10 points or less, and four of the last eight games have been decided by four points or less…the Wildcats are just 1-8 in games decided by 10 points or less this year. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| SENIOR STALWARTS |
| Seniors Natalie Galus and Leah McDonell have been steady contributors since their freshman season…Galus has started 86 of a possible 95 games over the past four seasons and has totaled 887 points, 595 rebounds and 178 blocks over her career…she ranks fifth among Daemen's all-time leaders in career blocks…McDonell had started 93-straight games before sitting out the last two games due to injury…she has racked up 810 points, 433 rebounds, 223 assists and 89 steals…she established career-highs for points (248), assists (69) and steals (34) in a season last year. |
| Â Â |
| SABA SELECTED |
| Sarah Saba was named the East Coast Conference Player of the Week for games held December 12-19…she averaged 22.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists over two games, including a career-high 28 points in a one-point loss to New York Institute of Technology…she scored 17 points in a loss to Saint Anselm and in the process registered her 1,000th career point—making her the 23rd player in program history to reach the 1,000 point plateau…last year she became the first-ever women's basketball player from Daemen to earn first-team All-ECC honors…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 69 games over the past three seasons (65 as a starter) and has totaled 1,072 points (15.5 ppg) and 480 rebounds (7.0 rpg)…she has scored in double figures in 60 of her 69 career games. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| HEY ROOKIE |
| Freshmen Carina Pringle and Sydney Jones have played significant minutes this season…Pringle has started nine games and is averaging 28.7 minutes, 6.7 points, a team-high 2.8 assists and 3.0 rebounds…she totaled 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in the win over Mercy last week…Jones has played in all 14 games (5 starts) and is averaging 16.4 minutes and 5.0 points with 12 three-pointers…she played a season-high 32 minutes in the win over Mercy last week and scored a season-high 15 points. |
| Â Â Â Â |
| ON THE HORIZON |
| The Wildcats will face their third-straight regionally-ranked opponent when they travel to Molloy College Saturday (Jan. 14) for an ECC game…Molloy is ranked sixth in the D2SIDA East Region poll. |
