| THE LEAD |
| The Daemen College women's basketball team closes out its three-game home stand by hosting Long Island University Post in an East Coast Conference game on Wednesday (Jan. 25)...the Wildcats have won two straight games, and are 4-1 at home since Dec. 31...they'll be looking for a split of the season series with LIU Post which won the teams' previous meeting this season on Long Island (69-59 on nov. 30)...the Pioneers come into Wednesday's contest just one game ahead of Daemen in the win column in the ECC standings. |
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| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
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Date:Â Wednesday, Jan. 25
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Time:Â 4 p.m.
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Location:
Lumsden Gymnasium
Amherst, N.Y. |
| Daemen Roster |
LIU Post Roster |
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| Daemen Schedule |
LIU Post Schedule |
ECC Website | ECC Standings |
| Daemen Stats |
LIU Post 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 |
| LIU Post Twitter: |
@liupostpioneers |
| 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 (7-11, 4-6 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…Jordan Heinold joins her sister Taylor following an outstanding career at Immaculata Academy…guards Carina Pringle, Alexis Perdue and Sydney Jones also join the mix…Daemen opened the year with wins over Felician (65-54) and Nyack (76-54), before dropping eight of the next nine contests, three of which were decided by two points or less…the Wildcats' lone win in that span came at regionally-ranked Bridgeport on Dec. 10, defeating the Purple Knights 72-68…Daemen is 4-3 since Dec. 31 with all four wins coming on home court…the Wildcats snapped a three-game losing streak following an 88-80 win over rival Roberts Wesleyan on Jan. 18, and added an 85-56 victory over District of Columbia on Jan. 21…the 29-point defeat of UDC was Daemen's largest margin of victory ever in an ECC contest...Saba and McDonell and have paced the Wildcats thus far…Saba has scored in double figures in 15 of 18 games this season and leads the team in scoring (15.9 ppg), and rebounding (7.3 rpg)…she equaled her career-high with 28 points in the win over RWC…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 on the team in both scoring average (15.1 ppg) and assists (39) leads the team in steals (37)…netted a game-high 14 points while adding seven rebounds in the win against UDC…Jordan Heinold has started 14 games and is averaging 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds with a team-high 30 three-pointers…Galus (6.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 27 blks) totaled 13 points and five blocks in a loss to St. Thomas Aquinas…Galus recorded four out of Daemen's season-high 11 blocks against UDC…Pringle (6.9 ppg) scored 12 points in the win over RWC and leads the team in assists (2.7 apg)…DeWaters (18) and Jones (15) both established career-highs for points during a win over Mercy…Egan, Miles, and Pawlak all contributed double-figure scores in the win over UDC…Egan canned 6-of-8 field goal attempts for a career-high 13 points…Miles totaled a season-high 11 points along with eight rebounds…Pawlak connected on three shots from three-point range as a part of a 10-point performance. |
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| LIU POST SCOUTING REPORT (9-10, 5-4 ECC) |
| LIU Post returns seven players and two starters from last year's team that finished 5-23 overall and 5-15 in the ECC…LIUP was voted sixth in the 2016-17 ECC preseason poll…the Pioneers opened ECC play with a 62-57 upset of defending league champion NYIT back on Nov. 23…since their 69-59 win over Daemen on Nov. 30, the Pioneers have gone 5-7 and rank fourth in the ECC with a 5-4 conference record…the Pioneers are 4-3 since Dec. 31...they snapped a three-game losing streak in their last outing, a 77-67 non-league victory over Georgian Court on Jan. 21...head coach Deirdre Moore is in her ninth season at LIU Post…freshman forward Mikaiya Moore leads the team in scoring (15.6 ppg), blocks (20), and second in rebounding (6.2 rpg)..she totaled a career high 30 points in an 84-83 overtime victory over UDC on Jan. 4 and has collected ECC Rookie of the Week honors twice this season…additional production has come from senior guard Kylie Garrett (12.6 ppg, 50 3pt fgs), sophomore forward Sasha Patterson (7.9 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and junior guard Kristen Olsen (8.5 ppg, 27 3pt fgs)…Olsen sat out last season after transferring from ECC rival St. Thomas Aquinas where she totaled 466 points and 90 three-pointers during her freshman and sophomore seasons...the Pioneers have done a great job on the backboard this season as they rank second in the league in rebounds per game (44.2) and first in rebounding margin (+5.3)...offensively, the Pioneers are second in the league in creating points at the charity stripe, averaging 14.4 made free throws per game, despite shooting just 65.5 percent from the line which ranks eighth. |
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| THE HISTORY vs. LIU Post |
| All-Time:Â LIU Post leads 5-2 |
| Streak:Â Lost 1 |
| Previous Meetings: CLICK HERE |
| Last Meeting: LIU Post 69, Daemen 59 | Dec. 3, 2016 | Brookville, N.Y. |
| Last Meeting Highlights: Daemen opened East Coast Conference play with a 69-59 loss at LIU Post…Leah McDonell paced the Daemen attack with 15 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and four steals…four players reached double figures for the Pioneers, led by sophomore Shannon Doyle who scored a team-high 15 points…sophomore Sasha Patterson added 11 points and 18 rebounds. |
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| CLOSE CALLS |
| 11Â of Daemen's last 15 games have been decided by 10 points or less...the Wildcats are just 2-9 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 98 games over the past four seasons and has totaled 900 points, 606 rebounds and 182 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 96 of a possible 98 games and has racked up 850 points, 445 rebounds, 228 assists and 96 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 72 games over the past three seasons (68 as a starter) and has totaled 1,117 points (15.5 ppg) and 497 rebounds (6.9 rpg)…she has scored in double figures in 62 of her 72 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 14 games and is averaging 25.7 minutes, 8.1 points and 5.4 rebounds with a team-high 30 three-pointers…she drilled five triples and scored 18 points in the recent win over Lake Erie…Pringle has started 12 games and is averaging 28.9 minutes, 6.9 points and a team-high 2.8 assists…she totaled 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in a win over Mercy…Jones has played in all 17 games (5 starts) and is averaging 16.2 minutes and 4.9 points with 15 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 HORIZONÂ |
| The Wildcats return to action Saturday (Jan. 28) when they travel to Mercy College for an ECC game…the Wildcats posted a 79-66 win over the Mavericks earlier this year at Lumsden Gym. |
