| THE LEAD |
| The Wildcats begin a stretch of three-straight home games when they play host to long-time rival Roberts Wesleyan College on Wednesday (Jan. 18). |
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| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
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Date:Â Wednesday, Jan. 18
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Time:Â 6 p.m.
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Location:
Lumsden Gymnasium
Amherst, N.Y. |
| Daemen Roster |
Roberts Wesleyan Roster |
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| Daemen Schedule |
Roberts Wesleyan Schedule |
ECC Website |
| Daemen Stats |
Roberts Wesleyan Stats |
D2 East Hoops Website |
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| Â Â Â LIVEÂ STATS |
   LIVE VIDEO |
   LIVE AUDIO (WYSL-ROCHESTER) |
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| ECC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL HOME PAGE |
ECC STANDINGS |
EAST REGION INSIDERS WEBSITE |
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| SOCIAL MEDIA |
| Daemen Twitter:Â |
@DaemenAthletics, @DaemenWBB |
| Daemen Hashtags:Â |
#DCWildcatNation, #WNYsD2Team, #LiveBreatheDaemen, #beFIERCE |
| Roberts Wesleyan Twitter: |
@RWCREDHAWKS |
| 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 (5-11, 2-6 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), and is coming off losses to nationally-ranked Queens (75-40) and regionally-ranked Molloy (52-45)…Saba and McDonell and have paced the Wildcats thus far…Saba has scored in double figures in 14 of 16 games this season, is tied for the team lead in points per game (15.4 ppg) and leads the team in rebounds per game (7.3) and blocks (21)…McDonell equaled her career-high for points (23) in a loss to Saint Anselm and netted 22 points in the win over Bridgeport…she is tied for the team lead in scoring average (15.4 ppg) and leads the team in steals (34)…Jordan Heinold has started 13 games and is averaging 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds with a team-high 28 three-pointers…Galus (6.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 20 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 (2.7 apg)…DeWaters (18) and Jones (15) both established career-highs for points during the win over Mercy. |
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| ROBERTS WESLEYANÂ SCOUTING REPORT (10-7, 4-3 ECC) |
| Roberts Wesleyan returns eight players and four starters from last year's team that finished 29-7 overall (14-6 ECC) and advanced to the championship game of the ECC Tournament…RWC was voted third in the 2016-17 ECC preseason poll…the Redhawks are 5-3 over their last eight games and snapped a two-game losing streak following an 84-58 win over New York Tech on Saturday…the Redhawks lead the ECC in points per game (77.2) and rank seventh among all Division II teams in three-pointers made per game (9.9)…second-year head coach Gary Andrews must overcome the graduation of 6-foot-3 forward Samantha Courtney who collected first-team All-ECC and ECC Defensive Player of the Year honors last year…juniors Brooke Fields and Lucy Covley top the list of returning players…Fields averaged 15.6 points with 65 three-pointers last year, while Covley drilled a league-high 97 three-pointers and averaged 9.8 points…Fields scored 25 points in a recent 89-76 loss to LIU Post and is averaging a team-high 16.8 points with 30 three-pointers…Covley ranks third among the league leaders in three-pointers so far this year and is averaging 9.0 points…freshmen Emily Miller and Taya Andrews have both started all 17 games and have made immediate contributions…Miller scored 26 points in a recent 75-61 win over UDC and is averaging 13.0 points and 6.5 rebounds…she also leads the team in steals (28) and blocks (29)…Andrews has drilled 30 three-pointers and is averaging 12.5 points and 5.4 rebounds…additional production has come from freshman Sara Nad (8.0 ppg, 24 3pt fgs) and junior Nacedah James (6.5 ppg, 3.3 apg, 25 stls). |
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| THE HISTORY vs. ROBERTS WESLEYAN |
| All-Time: Daemen leads 32-20 |
| Streak:Â Lost 3 |
| Previous Meetings: CLICK HERE |
| Last Meeting: Roberts Wesleyan 76, Daemen 63 | Feb. 17, 2016 | Amherst, N.Y. |
| Last Meeting Highlights: Brooke Fields drilled four three-pointers and totaled 24 points to lead nationally-ranked Roberts Wesleyan to a 76-63 victory over Daemen…RWC entered the game ranked 25th in the D2SIDA national poll…Daemen, which saw its season-best four-game winning streak come to an end, was led by Raeann Stilwell who totaled 16 points, nine rebounds and three steals. |
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| CLOSE CALLS |
| 10 of Daemen's last 13 games have been decided by 10 points or less, and four of the last 10 games have been decided by four points or less…the Wildcats are just 1-9 in games decided by 10 points or less this year. |
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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 97 games over the past four seasons and has totaled 889 points, 602 rebounds and 179 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 95 of a possible 97 games and has racked up 837 points, 438 rebounds, 226 assists and 93 steals. |
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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 71 games over the past three seasons (67 as a starter) and has totaled 1,089 points (15.3 ppg) and 491 rebounds (6.9 rpg)…she has scored in double figures in 61 of her 71 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 25.3 minutes, 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds with a team-high 28 three-pointers…she drilled five triples and scored 18 points in the recent win over Lake Erie…Pringle has started 11 games and is averaging 28.9 minutes, 6.5 points and a team-high 2.7 assists…she totaled 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in the win over Mercy…Jones has played in all 16 games (5 starts) and is averaging 16.4 minutes and 5.0 points with 14 three-pointers…she played a season-high 32 minutes in the win over Mercy and scored a season-high 15 points. |
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| ON THE HORIZON |
| The Wildcats return to action Saturday (Jan. 21) when they host the University of the District of Columbia in an ECC game…the Firebirds posted a 56-54 win over the Wildcats earlier this year at UDC. |
