GAME INFORMATION & LINKS
GAME #5: Daemen Wildcats (3-1, 0-0 ECC) vs. Lake Erie Storm (3-2, 0-0 GMAC)
Monday, Nov. 26 | 7 p.m. | Amherst, N.Y. | Lumsden Gymnasium
Live Stats
Watch Live: ECC Network
Game Day
JUMP BALL
Daemen plays at Lumsden Gymnasium for the second time in a three-day span when Lake Erie comes to town for a non-conference affair. The Wildcats are coming off a 78-71 win over Slippery Rock on Nov. 24, the team's seventh straight home victory dating back to last season. Monday's game will mark Daemen's final tune-up opportunity before opening East Coast Conference play on Dec. 5 at Roberts Wesleyan. Lake Erie comes in with three wins in five contests so far this season. The Storm are coming off a 70-64 loss at Mercyhurst last Tuesday, Nov. 20.
RETURN OF THE MAC
Mike MacDonald returns to the bench for his fifth season as Daemen's head coach, and his 22nd season overall as a collegiate head coach. Since beginning to roam the Daemen sidelines, MacDonald has led the Wildcats to an 84-38 overall record. The Wildcats have won at least 19 games in each of MacDonald's first four seasons, and the team's 84 victories in that span are the second most among all NCAA Division II programs in New York State. Before coming to Daemen, MacDonald transformed the Division III program at Medaille into a perennial powerhouse, averaging 18 wins per season and advancing to the postseason six times in his eight years as head coach. MacDonald made his head coaching debut at the Division I level, leading the program at Canisius from 1997-2006. While there, MacDonald's teams racked up 108 wins making him the third all-time winningest coach in the program's history. The longtime bench boss holds a career record of 340-264.
TOP 25 RANKING
Daemen was ranked No. 22 in the Division II Bulletin preseason poll, marking the first time in the program's Division II era that they've been included in any of the several national polls. Division II Bulletin is a national publication that specializes in the coverage of NCAA Division II men's basketball. The Wildcats have also received votes in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) preseason national polls. Daemen is ranked seventh in this week's D2SIDA regional poll.
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Redshirt sophomore center Andrew Sischo headlines Daemen's returning players. After earning first team All-ECC and ECC Rookie of the Year honors last season, Sischo was named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year for 2018-19. An eight-time ECC Rookie of the Week selection in 2017-18, Sischo was downright dominant on the interior last season as he led the team in points (462), points per game (15.4), made field goals (195), field goal percentage (56.5%), rebounds (261), rebounds per game (8.7) and blocked shots (25). His point total established a new team record for scoring by a freshman, eclipsing the previous mark of 420 set by Brian Montanaro during the 2002-03 season. He was also the first Daemen player with more than 200 rebounds in a season since Gerald Beverly (373 in 2014-15), and his rebound total is second among freshmen players in team history. Appearing in all 30 games, Sischo reached double-figure scoring 25 times and totaled seven double-doubles. Sischo led all ECC freshmen and ranked among the league's overall leaders in scoring (seventh), rebounding (second) and field goal percentage (third). He was Daemen's first major award winner from the conference since Beverly earned ECC Defensive Player of the Year honors for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons, and the first freshman to earn first team All-ECC honors since John Petrucelli of Molloy College in the 2010-11 season. To start the 2018-19 campaign, Sischo was named to the ECC-CACC Challenge all-tournament team and the ECC Player of the Week after averaging 22.0 points and 10.0 rebounds in wins over Caldwell and Nyack. He has posted four double-doubles in as many games this season, including a 31-point, 15-rebound effort in Saturday's win over Slippery Rock. For the season, Sischo is shooting 60 percent from the field and averaging 23.0 points and 11.3 rebounds per game, both tops among all ECC players.
BREAKOUT BREON
Junior guard Breon Harris enjoyed a breakout season in 2017-18, helping Daemen to wins in 16 of 18 games after he was inserted into the starting lineup. After producing just 3.1 points on 31.8 percent shooting while coming off the bench in the team's first 11 games, Harris contributed 13.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.7 steals per game, while shooting 51.4 percent from the field as a starter. After totaling just just three three-pointers in the first 21 games of his career, Harris has made at least one in 18 of the last 19 games (27 total three-point field goals in that span). A third team All-ECC and ECC All-Tournament Team selection, Harris finished the 2017-18 season averaging 9.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.3 steals per game. He finished second in the ECC in total steals with 70, becoming the first Daemen player with more than 60 steals in a season since Casey Sheehan (68) during the 2012-13 campaign. Harris opened the 2018-19 season by earning MVP honors at the ECC-CACC Challenge where he averaged 16.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists while leading Daemen to wins over Caldwell and Nyack. For the season, he's producing 13.0 points and 3.3 assists per game.
THREE-DICULOUS
Over the last two seasons, forward Jeff Redband has established himself as one of the preeminent three-point shooters in the ECC. In the 2016-17 season, Redband canned 68-of-151 three-point attempts becoming the first Daemen freshman with more than 50 triples since Brian Montanaro's 70 in 2002-03. He followed that up by shooting 69-for-169 from deep last season, becoming the first Daemen player with 60 or more three-pointers in back-to-back seasons since Montanaro did so in four straight seasons from 2002-06. A third team All-ECC pick in 2017-18, Redband averaged 11.2 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, while finishing third in three-point field goals and sixth in three-point shooting percentage among the ECC leaders. Redband currently ranks seventh in team history with 148 three-point field goals. He is off to a fast start this season, averaging 15.8 points per game while shooting 52.8 percent from the field and 64.7 percent from three-point range. He was named to the ECC-CACC Challenge all-tournament team after helping Daemen pick up wins over Caldwell and Nyack, and registered his first 20-point game since the 2015-16 season in Saturday's win over Slippery Rock.
THE HAMILTON PRODUCTION
Redshirt senior guard/forward Deion Hamilton returns to the lineup after missing the final 20 games of the 2017-18 season. The 6-foot-4 slasher provides another viable scoring option for the Wildcats with a career scoring average of 11.0 points per game. Hamilton was leading the team in scoring (15.1 ppg) through the first 10 games last season, while also chipping in 4.2 rebounds per game. He's also been a two-time All-Tournament Team pick at the season-opening ECC-CACC Challenge. Daemen is 17-7 since the start of the 2016-17 season when Hamilton shoots 50 percent or better from the field. He's averaging 13.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and a team-high 3.8 assists through the first four games of the 2018-19 season. He registered just the second double-double of his career (12 points, 10 rebounds) in Saturday's win over Slippery Rock.
INJURY BUG
Daemen has been hit hard with the injury bug early this season as incumbent starting guards Darius Garvin and Jay Sarkis, as well as redshirt senior guard Nick Petrucelli have all missed time. Sarkis played just 11 minutes in the season-opener vs. Caldwell before going out, and Garvin exited after four minutes the following day vs. Nyack. The duo has a combined 149 games, including 128 starts, between them. Garvin has increased his statistical impact on the team in each of the last three seasons, and he was voted as the team's MVP by his teammates in 2017-18. Only Sarkis logged more minutes than Garvin's 1,022 last season. He finished the year averaging 9.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, and was one of only two players in the ECC to record double-figure points, rebounds and assists at some point during last season. Garvin returned to the lineup in Saturday's win over Slippery Rock, logging 29 minutes off the bench. In 30 games last season, Sarkis produced 12.5 points and a team-best 3.6 assists per game and earned third team All-ECC honors. Sarkis finished the season ranking among the ECC leaders in total minutes (1,057 - 3rd), minutes per game (35.2 - 5th), three-point field goal percentage (42.5 - 5th), three-point field goals (68 - 4th), total assists (106 - 3rd) and assists per game (3.5 - 6th).
STARTING 1-0
Daemen's 75-60 win over Caldwell on Nov. 9 extended their winning streak in season openers to 17, a streak that dates back to the 2002-03 season. The wins in that span have come over 14 different opponents. Fisher (Mass.), Wilfrid Laurier (Ont.) and Caldwell are the only opponents Daemen has defeated twice in season openers during the streak. The Wildcats' average margin of victory during the streak is an astonishing 23.8 points per game; in the team's six season openers since beginning to play a full Division II schedule, the average margin of victory is 18.2 points per game. Just two games - a 68-65 final over Toronto in 2011, and a 62-57 final over Felician in 2017 - have been decided by single digits. Daemen has gone over 100 points in three of the last seven season openers; the high-water mark came in 2013 when they downed Ohio Valley 111-90. Daemen's last loss in a season opener came at the Spring Hill College (Ala.) Tournament against the hosts on Nov. 2, 2001, falling 75-35.
DEFENDING THE DEN
Daemen posted a 12-3 record at the friendly confines of Lumsden Gymnasium last season, reaching double-figure home wins for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Daemen is 85-13 at Lumsden Gymnasium (.866 winning percentage).
LAKE ERIE SCOUTING REPORT
Lake Erie is a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, and the Storm are led by third-year head coach Kyle Conley who was promoted after spending seven seasons as the team's assistant/associate head coach. Since taking over, Conley has led Lake Erie to a 23-40 overall record, including a 16-14 mark last season. The Storm posted a 10-10 mark in league play last season, their first as a GMAC member. They qualified for the GMAC tournament and ultimately advanced to the semifinal round. Now, the Storm return 11 players off that team, including their top three point producers. Junior guard Gabe Kynard, an honorable mention All-GMAC selection last season, headlines the list of returners after averaging team-highs of 15.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Junior guard Jordan Humphrey (8.9 ppg) and senior guard Brogan Scott (7.7 ppg) also return. The Storm were picked sixth out of 13 teams in the GMAC preseason poll. After opening the season with a 72-57 loss to Ashland, the Storm rattled off three straight wins, defeating Wayne State (77-67), Central State (88-65) and Edinboro (74-60). Their three-game winning streak was halted last Tuesday when they suffered a 70-64 road loss at Mercyhurst. Kynard has upped his production to 19.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game so far this season. He's gone for 20+ points twice thus far, including a season-high 25 in the win over Edinboro. Junior guard Erron James (9.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and sophomore guard Harrison Riggs (9.0 ppg) have also produced early in the season.
ALL-TIME SERIES
Daemen vs. Lake Erie: 0-1
Streak: Lost 1
Last Meeting: Lake Erie 81, Daemen 78 | Dec. 2, 2017 | Painesville, Ohio
More Details
DID YOU KNOW?
* Daemen is 14-3 in November home games since the start of the 2014-15 season.
UP NEXT
East Coast Conference play gets underway next Wednesday, Dec. 5 when the Wildcats renew the Thruway Rivalry with Roberts Wesleyan.
