| THE LEAD |
| The Wildcats hit the road for the first time in two weeks when they travel to Mercy College for an ECC game Saturday (Jan. 28)…the game will be played at Westchester Community College...a look at the ECC standings shows that Daemen is one of five ECC teams that enter the weekend with five league wins. |
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| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
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Date: Saturday, Jan. 28
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Time: 12:30 p.m.
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Location:
Westchester Community College
Valhalla, N.Y. |
| Daemen Roster |
Mercy Roster |
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| Daemen Schedule |
Mercy Schedule |
ECC Website | ECC Standings |
| Daemen Stats |
Mercy Stats |
D2 East Hoops Website |
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| LIVE STATS |
LIVE VIDEO |
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| SOCIAL MEDIA |
| Daemen Twitter: |
@DaemenAthletics, @DaemenWBB |
| Daemen Hashtags: |
#DCWildcatNation, #WNYsD2Team, #LiveBreatheDaemen, #beFIERCE |
| Mercy Twitter: |
@MercyMavericks |
| 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 (8-11, 5-6 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…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…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 fold…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 5-3 since Dec. 31 with all five wins coming on home court…the Wildcats enter Saturday's game riding a three-game winning streak, having posted ECC wins over Roberts Wesleyan (88-80), District of Columbia (85-56) and LIU Post (96-84)…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 17 of 19 games this season and leads the team in scoring (16.5 ppg), rebounding (7.3 rpg) and blocks…she turned in an outstanding all-around effort in the win over LIU Post on Wednesday, as she equaled her career-high for points (28) and also added seven rebounds, five assists, seven blocks and five steals…McDonell has scored in double figures in 15 of 17 games and netted 19 points in the win over LIU Post…she ranks second on the team in both scoring average (15.4 ppg) and assists (39) leads the team in steals (41)…Jordan Heinold has started 16 games and is averaging 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds with a team-high 34 three-pointers…Galus (7.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 28 blks) scored a season-high 15 points in the win over LIU Post…Pringle (6.4 ppg) scored 12 points in the win over RWC and leads the team in assists (2.8 apg)…DeWaters (18) and Jones (15) both established career-highs for points during a win over Mercy earlier this month…Egan (13), Miles (11), and Pawlak (10) all contributed double-figure scores in the win over UDC…Egan canned 6-of-8 field goal attempts for a career-high 13 points. |
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| MERCY SCOUTING REPORT (3-16, 1-10 ECC) |
| Mercy returns seven players and four starters from last year's team that finished 6-22 overall and 3-17 in the ECC…Mercy was voted 10th in the 2016-17 ECC preseason poll…first-year head coach Jim Harter must overcome the graduation of forward Deasia Goodson who led the team in scoring (13.1 ppg), rebounding (11.3 rpg) and blocks (76) last year and earned third-team All-ECC honors…the Mavericks posted their first ECC win of the year two weeks ago against District of Columbia (66-50), but have lost their last three games to New York Tech (79-58), Bridgeport (72-59) and nationally-ranked Queens (65-51)…junior Latisha Clark, sophomore transfer Destinee Hall and junior forward Monet Keane-Dawes have paced a balanced attack thus far…Clark scored a season-high 26 points in the loss to Bridgeport last week and is averaging a team-high 10.0 points…Hall, who averaged 17.0 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.8 steals at Division III Keystone College last year, is contributing 9.9 points and 6.0 rebounds per game…Keane-Dawes totaled 15 points and eight rebounds in the win over UDC and is averaging 8.4 points and 7.2 boards…sophomores Chi-la Bady (6.9 ppg, 3.4 apg) and Cynthia Perez (7.5 ppg, 21 3pt fgs) and freshman Caralie Wilson (6.9 ppg, 36 3pt fgs) have also produced. |
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| THE HISTORY vs. MERCY |
| All-Time: Daemen leads 5-2 |
| Streak: Won 2 |
| Previous Meetings: CLICK HERE |
| Last Meeting: Daemen 79, Mercy 66 | Jan. 2, 2017 | Amherst, N.Y. |
| Last Meeting Highlights: Daemen outscored Mercy 51-37 in the second half en route to a 79-66 win over the Mavericks earlier this month at Lumsden Gym…Daemen, which was without the services of Leah McDonell due to injury, was led by Sarah Saba who totaled 24 points, 13 rebounds, three assists and two blocks…Mercy got four three-pointers and 14 points from sophomore Cynthia Perez. |
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| GETTING OFFENSIVE |
| Daemen has averaged 89.7 points over the past three games and scored over 90 points in a game for the first time since the 2014-15 season during the 96-84 win over LIU Post on Wednesday night…Daemen is shooting 48-percent (94-194) from the field overall and 44-percent (32-72) from three-point land over the past three games…the Wildcats made a season-high 12 three-pointers in the win over Roberts Wesleyan last week. |
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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 played in 99 of a possible 100 games (87 starts) over the past four seasons and has totaled 915 points, 613 rebounds and 187 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 98 of a possible 100 games and has racked up 883 points, 454 rebounds, 230 assists and 100 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 74 games over the past three seasons (70 as a starter) and has totaled 1,157 points (15.6 ppg), 513 rebounds (6.9 rpg), 111 blocks and 99 steals…she has scored in double figures in 64 of her 74 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 16 games and is averaging 25.7 minutes, 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds with a team-high 34 three-pointers…she had four three-pointers and equaled her season-high for points (21) in the win over LIU Post Wednesday…Pringle has started 14 games and is averaging 27.9 minutes, 6.4 points and a team-high 2.8 assists…she totaled 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in a win over Mercy earlier this month…Jones has played in all 19 games (5 starts) and is averaging 15.9 minutes and 4.8 points with 16 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 the friendly confines of Lumdsen Gym, where they have won five of their last six games, next Thursday (Feb. 2) when they host the University of Bridgeport in a league game…the Wildcats posted a 72-68 win over the Purple Knights last month in Connecticut. |
