Men's Basketball 2/28/2018 2:31:00 PM By Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications

Men's Basketball Remains #8 In NCAA East Region Rankings

Indianapolis, Ind. - The Daemen College men's basketball team is ranked eighth in the latest NCAA Division II East Region rankings, as announced today by the NCAA Men's Basketball Regional Advisory Committee. It marks the second straight week that the Wildcats have occupied the No. 8 ranking after debuting at No. 9 on February 14.

The East Region of NCAA Division II is comprised of teams from the East Coast Conference, the Northeast-10 Conference and the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The NCAA announces the 10-team regional rankings each of the three Wednesdays prior to the NCAA Championships selection announcement, which will be made this year on Sunday, March 4. The eight-team NCAA Championships East Regional will consist of three automatic berths and five at-large selections.

Daemen (21-7, 15-3 ECC) has won 16 of their last 17 games, and finished the regular season in a tie with Saint Thomas Aquinas College (24-6, 15-3 ECC) for second place in the ECC standings. Daemen's only recent loss came on January 28 against East Coast Conference regular season champion University of Bridgeport (24-4, 17-1 ECC) which is ranked second. The rankings are topped for the third straight week by Northeast-10 Conference affiliate Le Moyne College (22-6, 18-2 NE-10).

Also included in the rankings are: No. 4 College of Saint Rose (20-9, 15-5 NE-10), No. 5 Saint Anselm College (21-7, 15-6 NE-10), No. 5 Bloomfield College (22-7, 17-2 CACC), No. 7 Merrimack College (19-10, 14-7 NE-10), No. 9 University of New Haven (17-10, 13-7 NE-10) and No. 10 Dominican College (20-9, 13-6 CACC). Merrimack was the big mover this week, jumping from ninth to seventh. Saint Rose, Bloomfield and New Haven have all been eliminated from their respective conference tournaments already.

Daemen holds a 2-3 record this season against teams included in the regional rankings. Both Daemen wins came on the road as they defeated Saint Rose 68-60 on December 31, and Saint Thomas Aquinas 73-66 on February 2. The New Year's Eve win snapped Saint Rose's 14-game home winning streak, and the latter victory over STAC snapped the Spartans' region-best 19-game home winning streak, as well as a 20-game home conference winning streak.

The Wildcats are coming off a pair of road wins this past weekend, defeating Long Island University Post (61-58) and New York Institute of Technology (92-68) in ECC matchups to close out the regular season, extending their road winning streak to nine consecutive games in the process. The Wildcats have surpassed the 20-win plateau for the fifth time in the last seven seasons, and they ended the regular season as the ECC leader in field goal percentage (48.1), field goal percentage defense (41.2), three-point field goal percentage defense (32.9) and points per game allowed (71.2).

Coach Mike MacDonald's Wildcats enter the ECC Championship Tournament as the No. 3 seed after losing a coin toss that broke the tie with STAC. Daemen hosts sixth-seeded Roberts Wesleyan College (14-13, 7-11 ECC) in a first round game this evening at Lumsden Gymnasium with tip-off slated for 7 p.m. The winner of tonight's game advances to the tournament semifinals (Saturday, March 3 at the Voller Athletic Center in Rochester) where second-seeded STAC awaits.

For breaking news and continuing coverage of the Daemen men's basketball team, follow @DaemenAthletics and @DaemenMBB on Twitter.

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