| THE LEAD |
| The Daemen College women's basketball team closes out its 2016-17 home schedule by hosting nationally-ranked Queens College in an East Coast Conference game Wednesday (Feb. 22)…Queens has already claimed the ECC regular-season title and the top seed in the upcoming ECC Championship Tournament…Daemen is tied for sixth place with Bridgeport…the top six teams advance to the ECC Championship, which begins March 1…here is a look at the current ECC standings. |
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| SALUTE TO THE SENIORS |
| Seniors Jesse DeWaters, Natalie Galus, Leah McDonell and Rachel Pawlak will be honored in a pregame ceremony in recognition of their dedication and commitment to the Daemen women's basketball program. |
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| GAME INFORMATION & LINKS |
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Date: Wednesday, Feb. 22
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Time: 5 p.m.
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Location:
Lumsden Gymnasium
Amherst, N.Y. |
| Daemen Roster |
Queens Roster |
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| Daemen Schedule |
Queens Schedule |
ECC Website | ECC Standings |
| Daemen Stats |
Queens 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 |
| Queens Twitter: |
@QCKnights |
| 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 (11-13, 8-8 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 8-5 since Dec. 31 with seven of the eight wins coming on home court…the Wildcats posted a five-game winning streak last month that 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 snapped a two-game losing streak following a 70-50 win over regionally-ranked Molloy this past weekend…McDonell and Saba have paced the Wildcats all season…McDonell has scored in double figures in 11-straight games and 20 of 22 games overall…she registered a career-high 30 points in a loss to NYIT two weeks ago…she leads the team in scoring average (16.0 ppg) and steals (60) and ranks second in assists (56)…Saba has scored in double figures in 19 of 24 games and is averaging 15.6 points…she leads the team in rebounding (7.1 rpg) and blocks (37)…Jordan Heinold has started 20 games and is averaging 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds with a team-high 40 three-pointers…Galus (7.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 37 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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| QUEENS SCOUTING REPORT (23-3, 16-1 ECC) |
| Queens returns seven players and three starters from last year's team that finished 21-9 overall (15-5 ECC), claimed the ECC Tournament title for the second-straight year and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament for the second-straight season…Queens was voted first in the 2016-17 ECC preseason poll…the Knights are riding a region-best 15-game winning streak and are ranked second in the region and 14th nationally among Division II teams…senior G/F Madison Rowland and her red-shirt senior F/C sister MacKenzie top the list of returning players…Madison, a two-time All-American and three-time first-team All-ECC pick, has scored at least 20 points in each of the last eight games and leads the ECC in scoring average (21.3 ppg) and steals (4.7 spg) and ranks second among the league leaders in rebounding (10.2 rpg) and third in assists (4.0 apg)…she has already established the ECC record for career points (2,231) and career steals (479) and recorded her 1,000th career rebound in a 76-56 win over LIU Post this past weekend…MacKenzie, a three-time All-ECC pick, registered her 18th double-double of the year (22 pts, 10 rebs) during the win over LIU Post this past weekend…she ranks second in the league in scoring average (18.0 ppg) and first in rebounding (10.7 rpg) and is tied for the national lead in double-doubles…freshman guard Beth Bonin has also produced…a three-time ECC Rookie of the Week selection, she has made a team-high 41 three-pointers and is averaging 10.9 points…additional production has come from junior guard Merrick Rowland (8.2 ppg, 40 3pt fgs) and senior guard Joya McFarland (4.0 ppg, 2.2 apg)…McFarland totaled a season-high 21 points in a 78-65 win over Bridgeport last week. |
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| THE HISTORY vs. QUEENS |
| All-Time: Queens leads 7-0 |
| Streak: Lost 7 |
| Previous Meetings: CLICK HERE |
| Last Meeting: Queens 75, Daemen 40 | Jan. 11, 2017 | Flushing, N.Y. |
| Last Meeting Highlights: Seniors Madison and MacKenzie Rowland combined for 49 points, 25 rebounds, 16 assists, five blocks and seven steals to lead Queens to a 75-40 victory over Daemen in Flushing, N.Y…Queens entered the game ranked 23rd nationally and third regionally among Division II teams…Leah McDonell returned to the lineup for Daemen after missing two games due to injury and totaled 11 points in 19 minutes of action. |
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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 defeated a regionally-ranked team…Bridgeport entered the game riding a seven-game winning streak and ranked fourth in the East region…the 70-50 win over Molloy this past weekend marked Daemen's second victory over a regionally-ranked opponent…Molloy entered the game ranked fifth in the East region. |
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| HOME COOKING |
| After losing their first three homes games by a total of 10 points, the Wildcats have won seven of their last eight games in the friendly confines of Lumsden Gymnasium…Daemen is averaging 74.5 points and shooting 40-percent (100-248) from three-point land over its 11 home games…Sarah Saba is averaging 19.4 points and 8.1 rebounds at home this year. |
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| THREE'S A CHARM |
| Daemen ranks second among ECC teams in three-pointers made per game (7.3) and three-point field goal percentage (.330)…eight 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 and total steals…she ranks fifth among the ECC leaders in scoring average (16.0), fourth in field goal percentage (50.8) and second in 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 103 of a possible 105 games over her career and has racked up 973 points, 491 rebounds, 247 assists and 119 steals…she is just 27 points shy of becoming the 24th player in program history to score 1,000 points. |
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| SENIOR STALWART |
| Senior Natalie Galus has been a steady contributor since her freshman season…Galus has played in 104 of a possible 105 games (87 starts) over the past four seasons and has totaled 952 points, 631 rebounds and 196 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 (142). |
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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 79 games over the past three seasons (75 as a starter) and has totaled 1,218 points (15.4 ppg), 545 rebounds (6.9 rpg), 118 blocks and 103 steals…she has scored in double figures in 66 of her 79 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 20 games and is averaging 25.9 minutes, 8.6 points and 5.3 rebounds with a team-high 40 three-pointers…she had four three-pointers and equaled her season-high for points (21) in the win over LIU Post…Pringle has started 19 games and is averaging 27.7 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 24 games (5 starts) and is averaging 15.0 minutes and 5.0 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 close out the regular-season Saturday (Feb. 25) when they travel to long-time rival Roberts Wesleyan College…Daemen posted an 88-80 win over the Redhawks last month in Lumsden Gymnasium. |
