Head coach Mike MacDonald recently earned his 350th career win, and has his team ranked second in this week's regional poll

Men's Basketball Ranked 2nd In Latest D2SIDA Regional Poll

1/21/2019 2:01:00 PM

By: By Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications

D2SIDA MEN'S BASKETBALL EAST REGION MEDIA POLL WEEK 9 - JANUARY 21, 2019
Rank	School	Pts.	Record	Previous
1.	St. Thomas Aquinas (4)	57	15-2	T-1
2.	DAEMEN	53	14-3	T-1
3.	St. Anselm (2)	52	14-2	3
4.	New Haven	38	11-5	6
5.	Bentley	37	15-3	4
6.	Dominican	33	12-3	5
7.	Merrimack	23	12-6	10
8.	Stonehill	19	11-6	8
9.	Molloy	11	11-6	9
10.	Southern Connecticut St.	3	10-8	7
( ) - denotes first-place votes

AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's basketball team is the No. 2 ranked team in the NCAA Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) East Region media poll for week nine of the 2018-19 season which was released this afternoon.

Daemen (14-3, 6-1 ECC) earned 53 points in this week's poll, falling one spot after two straight weeks at No. 1. Fellow East Coast Conference member Saint Thomas Aquinas College (15-2, 7-0 ECC) takes sole possession of the top spot after sharing the No. 1 ranking with Daemen last week. The release of this week's poll is prelude to the first of two meetings between the Wildcats and Spartans which takes place this Friday, Jan. 25 at Daemen's Lumsden Gymnasium.

The Wildcats have won three straight and 12 of their last 14 games. Most recently, the Wildcats picked up nail-biting wins at Mercy College (75-74) and the University of Bridgeport (87-85), extending their ECC road winning streak to 12 straight games. The pair of victories moved Daemen to 7-2 this season in games decided by nine points or fewer.

Junior guard Breon Harris (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) led the way at Mercy, scoring a season-high 24 points, including five in the last 21 seconds that helped Daemen erase a four-point deficit. Harris' late three-pointer - his career-high sixth of the game - pulled Daemen within one, and was followed by his steal and acrobatic layup which proved to be the difference. The win marked the 350th in the career of head coach Mike MacDonald.

Against ECC preseason favorite Bridgeport, redshirt sophomore center Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) came up with a crucial blocked shot in a tie game with 1:13 to play, then made the go-ahead free throws 16 seconds later. The critical plays came as he was in the midst of recording his 10th double-double of the season, finishing with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Sischo, who was recently named to the Bevo Francis Award Top 100 Watch List, continues to lead Daemen in both scoring (20.9 ppg) and rebounding (10.1 rpg). He ranks second in the ECC in both categories, as well as in field goal percentage (.591). He also ranks among the NCAA Division II leaders in scoring (38th), rebounding (13th), field goal percentage (29th) and double-doubles (4th).

Also making a statistical mark on the national level is redshirt junior forward Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.) who presently leads the nation in three-point field goal percentage (50.5%). Redband has knocked down 53-of-105 three-point attempts this season, and he leads the ECC in three-point field goals. He's used his assault from the three-point line to contribute a career-high 14.8 points per game.

Harris, Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y.) and Quinn Lee Yaw (Jamestown, N.Y.) are also producing. Harris owns a trio of 20-point games this season, and is averaging 11.8 points per game with a team-high 28 steals. Hamilton matched his career-high with 26 points in a win over nationally-ranked Saint Anselm College earlier this month, and is averaging 12.8 points per game with a team-high 42 assists. Lee Yaw ranks first in the ECC in field goal percentage (59.2), and giving the team 8.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists 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 earlier this month when they were ranked 14th in the D2SIDA national poll. Daemen was ranked 19th in last week's D2SIDA national poll. Both the D2SIDA and NABC Division II national polls for this week will be released tomorrow.

Friday's matchup between the region's top-two ranked teams tips off a three-game homestand for the Wildcats. The teams split their two regular season meetings last season with the road team winning both games. STAC scored a 60-57 win when the teams met in the ECC Championship semifinals, marking the third straight year that they defeated Daemen in postseason play. Since the start of the 2014-15 season, STAC (117 wins) and Daemen (95 wins) have the most wins among all ECC and New York State Division II programs. Daemen also welcomes the University of the District of Columbia (Sunday, Jan. 27) and Roberts Wesleyan College (Thursday, Jan. 31) to Lumsden Gymnasium during the homestand.

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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