| THE LEAD |
| The Daemen College women's basketball team will look to snap a two-game losing streak when it hosts Molloy College in an East Coast Conference game Saturday (Feb. 18)…Molloy 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 |
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Date: Saturday, Feb. 18
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Time: 1 p.m.
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Location:
Lumsden Gymnasium
Amherst, N.Y. |
| Daemen Roster |
Molloy Roster |
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| Daemen Schedule |
Molloy Schedule |
ECC Website | ECC Standings |
| Daemen Stats |
Molloy 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 |
| 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 (10-13, 7-8 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 7-5 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…Daemen is coming off a 61-46 loss at STAC Wednesday…Saba and McDonell and have paced the Wildcats all season…Saba has scored in double figures in 19 of 23 games and is tied for the team lead in scoring (15.9 ppg)…she also leads the team in rebounding (7.0 rpg) and blocks (36)…McDonell has scored in double figures in 19 of 21 games and registered a career-high 30 points in the loss to NYIT last week…she is tied for the team lead in scoring average (15.9 ppg), ranks second in assists (52) and leads the team in steals (55)…Jordan Heinold has started 19 games and is averaging 8.5 points and 5.2 rebounds with a team-high 37 three-pointers…Galus (7.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 36 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 (2.6 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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| MOLLOY SCOUTING REPORT (18-7, 10-5 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 fifth in the latest NCAA Division II East Region poll…the Lions went undefeated (7-0) during the month of January, but they are just 1-3 in February…MC suffered a 71-65 loss at Bridgeport last weekend and is coming off 74-68 OT loss to NYIT this past Wednesday…Molloy owns impressive wins over nationally-ranked Queens (88-78) and Bentley (56-55) and regionally-ranked Bloomfield (65-62) and Caldwell (81-76) this season…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 25 games and leads the team in scoring (15.7 ppg) and three-pointers (53) and ranks second in rebounding (8.1 rpg), steals (40) and blocks (13)…she totaled 30 points and 16 rebounds in a recent 73-62 win over Roberts Wesleyan…Kelly has missed the last five games…she 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 52-percent from the field this year and is averaging 12.9 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 14.6 points and 6.8 rebounds and a team-high 3.9 assists this winter…additional productions has come from sophomore Ihnacinse Grady (8.9 ppg, 2.6 apg, 35 3pt fgs). |
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| THE HISTORY vs. MOLLOY |
| All-Time: Daemen leads 4-3 |
| Streak: Lost 2 |
| Previous Meetings: CLICK HERE |
| Last Meeting: Molloy 52, Daemen 45 | Jan. 14, 2017 | Rockville Centre, N.Y. |
| Last Meeting Highlights: A fourth quarter rally by Daemen came up just short and Molloy held on for a 52-45 win in Rockville Centre, N.Y…Molloy entered the game ranked sixth in the D2SIDA East Region poll…Leah McDonell paced the Wildcats with 16 points and three steals, while junior Sarah Saba added 11 points and 10 rebounds…Ihnacinse Grady led the Lions with five three-pointers and 17 points, while graduate student Kamala Thompson added 16 points and nine boards. |
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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 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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| HOME COOKING |
| After losing their first three homes games by a total of 10 points, the Wildcats have won six of their last seven games in the friendly confines of Lumsden Gymnasium…Daemen is averaging 74.9 points and shooting 40-percent (90-224) from three-point land over its 10 home games…Sarah Saba is averaging 20.4 points and 7.9 rebounds at home this year…Daemen is undefeated (3-0) against Molloy at home since beginning ECC play in 2013-14. |
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| THREE'S A CHARM |
| Daemen ranks second among ECC teams in three-pointers made per game (7.1) and three-point field goal percentage (.326)…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 fifth among the ECC leaders in both scoring average (15.9) and field goal percentage (50.4) and second in steals per game (2.6)…she had started 93-straight games before sitting out two games due to injury earlier this year…she has started 102 of a possible 104 games over her career and has racked up 956 points, 487 rebounds, 243 assists and 114 steals. |
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| SENIOR STALWART |
| Senior Natalie Galus has been a steady contributor since her freshman season…Galus has played in 103 of a possible 104 games (87 starts) over the past four seasons and has totaled 942 points, 629 rebounds and 195 blocks over her career…she ranks fifth among Daemen's all-time leaders in career blocks and eighth in career three-point field goals made (140). |
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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 78 games over the past three seasons (74 as a starter) and has totaled 1,209 points (15.5 ppg), 535 rebounds (6.9 rpg), 117 blocks and 102 steals…she has scored in double figures in 66 of her 78 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 18 games and is averaging 27.4 minutes, 6.3 points and a team-high 2.6 assists…she totaled 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals in a 79-66 win over Mercy…Jones has played in all 23 games (5 starts) and is averaging 15.5 minutes and 5.2 points with 21 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 HORIZON |
| The Wildcats return to action Wednesday (Feb. 22) when they host nationally-ranked Queens College in an ECC game…Queens, which is ranked 14th in the latest WBCA Division II poll, posted a 75-40 win over Daemen earlier this year in Flushing, N.Y. |
