| THE LEAD |
| The Wildcats play their third-straight regionally-ranked opponent when they travel to Molloy College for an East Coast Conference game Saturday (Jan. 14). |
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| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
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Date:Â Saturday, Jan. 14
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Time:Â 12 p.m.
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Location:
Quealy Gymnasium
Rockville Centre, N.Y. |
| Daemen Roster |
Molloy Roster |
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| Daemen Schedule |
Molloy Schedule |
ECC Website |
| Daemen Stats |
Molloy Stats |
D2 East Hoops Website |
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| Â Â Â LIVEÂ STATS |
  LIVE VIDEO |
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| SOCIAL MEDIA |
| Daemen Twitter:Â |
@DaemenAthletics, @DaemenWBB |
| Daemen Hashtags:Â |
#DCWildcatNation, #WNYsD2Team, #LiveBreatheDaemen, #beFIERCE |
| Molloy Twitter: |
@molloylions |
| ECC Twitter: |
@ECCSports |
| D2 East Hoops Twitter: |
@D2EastHoops |
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| 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. |
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| DAEMEN SCOUTING REPORT (5-10, 2-5Â 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, and is coming off a 70-45 loss at nationally-ranked Queens Wednesday…Saba and McDonell and have paced the Wildcats thus far…Saba has scored in double figures in 13 of 15 games this season and leads the team in points per game (15.7 ppg), rebounds per game (7.1) and blocks (20)…he ranks fifth among the ECC leaders in scoring average and 15th 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 (15.3 ppg) and assists (2.5 apg) and leads the team in steals (31)…Jordan Heinold has started 12 games and is averaging 8.0 points and 5.1 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 (7.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 19 blks) totaled 13 points and five blocks in the loss to STAC, while Pringle (6.5 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. |
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| MOLLOYÂ SCOUTING REPORT (13-4, 5-2 ECC) |
| Molloy returns just five players and one starter from last year's team that finished 12-17 overall (11-9 ECC) and earned a spot in the six-team ECC Tournament…Molloy was voted seventh in the 2016-17 ECC preseason poll and is ranked sixth in the latest D2SIDA East Region poll…the Lions have won five-straight and are coming off a 61-45 win at District of Columbia Wednesday…MC's winning streak started with impressive road wins over regionally-ranked Caldwell (81-76) and nationally-ranked Bentley (56-55)…the six newcomers on head coach Joe Pellicane's roster consist of two freshmen and four transfers…Division 1 transfers Kamala Thompson and Symone Kelly and senior Aliyah McDonald have paced the Lions thus far…Thompson, who spent three seasons (2011-14) at Dartmouth, returns to action following a two-year sabbatical…she has started all 17 games and leads the team in scoring (14.9 ppg), three-pointers (32) and steals (31) and ranks second in rebounding (7.5 rpg), assists (46) and blocks (10)…she totaled 21 points and eight rebounds in the win over UDC Wednesday…Kelly spent four years at Siena College and played in 64 of 67 games over the past two seasons for the Saints…she averaged 7.1 points and 6.4 rebounds last year…she is shooting 51-percent from the field this year and is averaging 13.9 points and a team-high 8.4 rebounds…she led the Lions in points in the wins over Caldwell (23) and Bentley (14)…McDonald returns after averaging 7.4 points as a junior…she is averaging 13.3 points and 6.5 rebounds and a team-high 3.7 assists this winter…additional production has come from sophomore Ihnacinse Grady (9.0 ppg, 2.9 apg, 23 3pt fgs) and senior Shantana Kanhoye (6.2 ppg). |
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| THE HISTORY vs. MOLLOY |
| All-Time: Daemen leads 4-2 |
| Streak:Â Lost 1 |
| Previous Meetings: CLICK HERE |
| Last Meeting: Molloy 63, Daemen 57 | Feb. 26, 2016 | Rockville Centre, N.Y. |
| Last Meeting Highlights: Aliyah McDonald totaled 15 points, six rebounds and five steals to lead Molloy to a 63-57 victory over Daemen at MC's Quealy Gymnasium…Molloy claimed the sixth an final berth into the ECC Championship Tournament with the win…Sarah Saba paced Daemen with 23 points and nine rebounds. |
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| CALL IT A COMEBACK |
| Both Daemen and Molloy have posted impressive comebacks during the brief history between the two schools…the first-ever meeting between the two schools during the 2013-14 season was a classic, as Daemen rallied for an 88-86 OT win at Molloy…Daemen used a barrage of three-pointers and rallied from a 24-point second-half deficit en route to the win—Daemen's first-ever ECC victory…Daemen set school-records for three-pointers made (16) and attempted (47) in the game…Raeann Stilwell led the charge, as she canned 8-of-20 from downtown and finished with 26 points…she tied the school-record for three-pointers made and attempted in a game…two years ago the Lions trailed by 22 points (57-35) early in the second half before rallying for an 83-81 victory—Molloy's first-ever victory over Daemen. |
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| THAT'S 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. |
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| SENIOR STALWARTS |
| Seniors Natalie Galus and Leah McDonell have been steady contributors since their freshman season…Galus has started 87 of a possible 96 games over the past four seasons and has totaled 887 points, 596 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 two games due to injury…she has started 94 of a possible 96 games and has racked up 821 points, 435 rebounds, 224 assists and 90 steals…she established career-highs for points (248), assists (69) and steals (34) in a season last year. |
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| 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 70 games over the past three seasons (66 as a starter) and has totaled 1,078 points (15.4 ppg) and 481 rebounds (6.9 rpg)…she has scored in double figures in 60 of her 70 career games. |
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| HEY ROOKIE |
| Freshmen Jordan Heinold, Carina Pringle and Sydney Jones have played significant minutes this season…Heinold has started 12 games and is averaging 24.9 minutes, 8.0 points and 5.1 rebounds with a team-high 26 three-pointers…she drilled five triples and scored 18 points in the recent win over Lake Erie…Pringle has started 10 games and is averaging 28.2 minutes, 6.5 points and a team-high 2.8 assists…she totaled 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in the win over Mercy last week…Jones has played in all 15 games (5 starts) and is averaging 16.7 minutes and 5.1 points with 13 three-pointers…she played a season-high 32 minutes in the win over Mercy last week and scored a season-high 15 points. |
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| ON THE HORIZON |
| The Wildcats begin a stretch of three-straight home games on Wednesday (Jan. 18) when they host long-time rival Roberts Wesleyan College in an ECC game. |
