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Western New York's Premier Division II Team
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Men's Basketball Tied For 1st In Latest D2SIDA Regional Poll

1/14/2019 1:00:00 PM

By: By Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications
D2SIDA MEN'S BASKETBALL
EAST REGION MEDIA POLL
WEEK 8 - JANUARY 14, 2019
Rank School Pts. Record Previous
T-1. DAEMEN (1) 53 12-3 1
T-1. St. Thomas Aquinas (3) 53 13-2 4
3. St. Anselm (2) 50 12-2 3
4. Bentley 48 14-2 2
5. Dominican 36 11-3 5
6. New Haven 27 9-5 10
7. Southern Connecticut St. 23 10-6 9
8. Stonehill 19 10-5 7
9. Molloy 11 10-5 NR
10. Merrimack 5 10-6 RV
( ) - denotes first-place votes
AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's basketball team is tied for first in the NCAA Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) East Region media poll for week eight of the 2018-19 season which was released this morning. It marks the second straight week that Daemen has been at the the top of the poll.  

Daemen (12-3, 4-1 ECC) earned 53 points and one first-place vote in this week's poll. The Wildcats share the top spot with fellow East Coast Conference member Saint Thomas Aquinas College which vaulted up from a No. 4 ranking last week thanks to five straight wings, the region's longest active winning streak.

The Wildcats remained at the top of the poll, despite splitting a pair of league games last week. A gut-wrenching 72-71 loss to Molloy College (ranked No. 9 this week) last Friday evening was followed by an 80-65 defeat of Queens College on Sunday afternoon. Daemen used a dominant second half to get past Queens, scoring 38 of their 52 points in the painted area. 

Redshirt sophomore center Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) played a big role in both games last week. The loss to Molloy spoiled a tremendous individual effort as he recorded his ninth double-double of the season with 29 points and 10 boards. He followed that up with a 23-point, seven-rebound performance in the win over Queens; he scored 14 of his game-high point total in the pivotal second half. For the season, Sischo is averaging 21.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, and shooing 59.3 percent from the field. He leads the ECC in field goal percentage, and also ranks second in both scoring and rebounding. The ECC Preseason Player of the Year also ranks among the national leaders in double-doubles (fifth), rebounding (10th), field goal percentage (31st) and scoring (31st). 

Redshirt junior forward Jeff Redband has continued his strong play. Over the last six games, the 6-foot-7 sharpshooter is shooting over 60 percent from both the field (34-for-55) and three-point range (22-for-34). Redband has done the majority of his offensive work from behind the three-point line where he's shot 46-for-89 so far this season. He currently leads the ECC in total three-pointers as well as three-point shooting accuracy (51.7%), and he ranks third nationally in the latter. Redband has made at least one three-pointer in 19 consecutive games, and is now tied with Mark Rouse for fifth in program history with 183 three-point field goals in his career. He's contributing a career-high 15.0 points per game this season, sixth-best in the ECC at present. 

Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y.), Breon Harris (Niagara Falls, N.Y.), Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y.) and Quinn Lee Yaw (Jamestown, N.Y.) are also producing for head coach Mike MacDonald. Hamilton matched his career-high with 26 points in a win over nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College earlier this month, and is averaging 12.9 points per game with a team-high 38 assists. Harris owns a pair of 20-point games this season, and is contributing 10.9 points per game with a team-high 24 steals. Sarkis missed the majority of November and December, but returned to lineup recently. He scored a season-high 19 points in a win over Dallas Baptist University, and is producing 7.0 points and 3.0 assists per game. Lee Yaw ranks second in the ECC in field goal percentage (58.9), and giving the team 9.2 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. 

With 13 returning players off last season's 22-8 team, expectations were high for MacDonald's club at the season's outset. The Wildcats were picked second in the ECC preseason poll, and 22nd in the Division II Bulletin preseason national poll, while also receiving top-25 votes in both the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and D2SIDA preseason national polls. The Wildcats made their first-ever appearance in an in-season top-25 poll last week when they were ranked 14th in the D2SIDA national poll. The Wildcats have also been listed as receiving votes in the last two successive NABC national polls. Both the D2SIDA and NABC Division II national polls for this week will be released tomorrow.  

Daemen hits the road for ECC games this weekend at Mercy College (Friday, Jan. 18) and the University of Bridgeport (Sunday, Jan. 20). 

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, and the East Region media poll is voted on by sports information professionals from around the region.

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