| THE LEAD |
| The Daemen College women's basketball team will look to bounce back after suffering its first loss in nearly a month when it travels to St. Thomas Aquinas College Wednesday (Feb. 15)…STAC is looking to earn one of the top two seeds in the upcoming ECC Championship Tournament, while Daemen is one of five teams battling for a spot in the six-team tournament…here is a look at the current ECC standings. |
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| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
 Â Â Â VS Â Â  Â |
Date:Â Wednesday, Feb. 15
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Time:Â 5 p.m.
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Location:
Aquinas Hall
Sparkill, N.Y. |
| Daemen Roster |
STACÂ Roster |
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| Daemen Schedule |
STACÂ Schedule |
ECC Website | ECC Standings |
| Daemen Stats |
STACÂ Stats |
D2 East Hoops Website |
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| Â Â LIVE STATS |
   LIVE VIDEO |
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| SOCIAL MEDIA |
| Daemen Twitter:Â |
@DaemenAthletics, @DaemenWBB |
| Daemen Hashtags:Â |
#DCWildcatNation, #WNYsD2Team, #LiveBreatheDaemen, #beFIERCE |
| STACÂ Twitter:Â |
@STACSpartans |
| 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 (10-12, 7-7Â 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…Daemen is 7-4 since Dec. 31 with six of the seven wins coming on home court…the Wildcats saw their five-game winning streak end following an 85-74 loss at NYIT last week…the streak included wins over Roberts Wesleyan (88-80), District of Columbia (85-56), LIU Post (96-84), Mercy (64-59) and Bridgeport (83-79)…the five-game winning streak was the longest since Daemen joined the ECC in 2013-14...Saba and McDonell and have paced the Wildcats all season…Saba has scored in double figures in 19 of 22 games and leads the team in scoring (16.4 ppg), rebounding (7.2 rpg) and blocks (35)…she averaged 20.4 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.6 blocks during Daemen's five-game winning streak…McDonell has scored in double figures in 18 of 20 games and registered a career-high 30 points in the loss to NYIT last week…she ranks second on the team in both scoring average (16.0 ppg) and assists (52) leads the team in steals (54)…Jordan Heinold has started 19 games and is averaging 8.5 points and 5.2 rebounds with a team-high 37 three-pointers…Galus (7.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 34 blks) scored a season-high 15 points in the win over LIU Post…Pringle (6.3 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 on Jan. 2…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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| ST. THOMAS AQUINASÂ SCOUTINGÂ REPORT (16-9, 10-5 ECC) |
| St. Thomas Aquinas returns 10 players and three starters from last year's team that finished 18-11 overall (11-9 in the ECC) and earned a bid to the ECC Tournament…STAC was voted fourth in the 2016-17 ECC preseason poll…the Spartans are ranked ninth in the most recent D2SIDA East Region poll…STAC won 13 of its first 17 games, but is just 3-5 over its last eight games and is coming off back-to-back losses to New Haven (61-47) and nationally-ranked Queens (67-58)…the Spartans feature one of the top defenses in the region and rank first among all ECC teams in scoring defense (58.4 papg)…junior guard Jenna Erickson, the ECC Rookie of the Year two years ago and a second-team All-ECC pick last year, tops the list of returning players…she drilled four three-pointers and scored 23 points in the loss to Queens this past weekend…she leads the team in scoring average (15.6 ppg), assists (2.9 apg) and steals (42) and ranks second in the ECC in three-pointers made (76)…junior forward Adiya Henderson scored 25 points in a recent win NYIT and is averaging 10.5 points and a team-high 7.6 rebounds…senior forward Kaitlyn McCue (7.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg), senior guard Samantha Burden (6.6 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 37 stls) and sophomore guard Ruth Adams (6.7 ppg) have also produced. |
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| THE HISTORY vs. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS |
| All-Time:Â St. Thomas Aquinas leads 6-2 |
| Streak:Â Lost 1 |
| Previous Meetings: CLICK HERE |
| Last Meeting: STAC 65, Daemen 55 | Jan. 4, 2017 | Amherst, N.Y. |
| Last Meeting Highlights: Jenna Erickson drilled four three-pointers and totaled 19 points and Kaitlyn McCue added 14 points and 13 rebounds to lead St. Thomas Aquinas to a 65-55 victory over Daemen in Lumsden Gym…STAC entered the game ranked seventh in the D2SIDA East Region poll…Sarah Saba registered her second-straight double-double and finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and three blocks. |
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| THAT'SÂ A FIRST |
| Daemen's 72-68 win at Bridgeport earlier this year 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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| GETTING OFFENSIVE |
| Daemen has averaged 81.7 points over the past six games and scored over 90 points in a game for the first time since the 2014-15 season during a 96-84 win over LIU Post…Daemen is shooting 44.5-percent (175-393) from the field overall and 38-percent (56-146) from three-point land over the past six games…STAC ranks first among ECC teams in fewest points allowed per game (58.4) and held the Wildcats to just 55 points in a 65-55 win over Daemen earlier this season. |
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| THREE'S A CHARM |
| Daemen ranks second among ECC teams in three-pointers made per game (7.4) and three-point field goal percentage (.331)…six different players on the team have made at least 10 three-pointers this season. |
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| CAREER YEAR |
| Senior Leah McDonell is enjoying the most productive season of her four-year career…she has established career-highs for points, three-pointers made, three-point field goal percentage, free throws made, free throws attempted, rebounds per game, assists per game and total steals…she ranks fourth among the ECC leaders in scoring average (16.0), first in three-point field goal percentage (40.8) and second in both overall field goal percentage (51.2) and steals per game (2.7)…she had started 93-straight games before sitting out two games due to injury earlier this year…she has started 101 of a possible 103 games over her career and has racked up 941 points, 482 rebounds, 243 assists and 113 steals. |
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| SENIOR STALWART |
| Senior Natalie Galus has been a steady contributor since her freshman season…Galus has played in 102 of a possible 103 games (87 starts) over the past four seasons and has totaled 939 points, 626 rebounds and 193 blocks over her career…she ranks fifth among Daemen's all-time leaders in career blocks and ninth in career three-point field goals made (139). |
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| SABA JOINS 1,000-POINT CLUB |
| Sarah Saba scored 17 points in a loss to Saint Anselm on Dec. 19 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 was named the East Coast Conference Player of the Week for games held December 12-19 after averaging 22.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists over two games…Saba has played in all 77 games over the past three seasons (73 as a starter) and has totaled 1,204 points (15.6 ppg), 534 rebounds (6.9 rpg), 116 blocks and 102 steals…she has scored in double figures in 66 of her 77 career games and is just the 13th player in program history to score 1,200 points. |
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| HEY ROOKIE |
| Freshmen Jordan Heinold, Carina Pringle and Sydney Jones have played significant minutes this season…Heinold has started 19 games and is averaging 25.7 minutes, 8.5 points and 5.2 rebounds with a team-high 37 three-pointers…she had four three-pointers and equaled her season-high for points (21) in the win over LIU Post…Pringle has started 17 games and is averaging 27.0 minutes, 6.3 points and a team-high 2.7 assists…she totaled 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in a 79-66 win over Mercy…Jones has played in all 22 games (5 starts) and is averaging 15.6 minutes and 5.3 points with 20 three-pointers…she contributed three three-pointers and 11 points in just 14 minutes off the bench in a 64-59 win at Mercy. |
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| ON THE HORIZONÂ |
| The Wildcats return to action Saturday (Feb. 18) when they host regionally-ranked Molloy College in an ECC game…Molloy, which is ranked fifth in the latest D2SIDA East Region poll, posted a 52-45 win over Daemen earlier this year in Rockville Centre, N.Y. |
