Sischo Again Named ECC Preseason Player of the Year

Redshirt-Junior Center Earns Honor For Second Straight Season

10/29/2019 4:22:00 AM

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

AMHERST, N.Y. - Redshirt-junior center Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) of Daemen College has been named the East Coast Conference Men's Basketball Preseason Player of the Year. It marks the second straight season that Sischo has earned the accolade, and it comes following a dominant sophomore campaign that concluded with his selection as the ECC and NCAA Division II East Region Player of the Year.

Sischo, who also earned second-team All-American honors from the Division II Conference Commissioner's Association (D2CCA) last season, became just the sixth player in team history to average a double-double for an entire season as he contributed team-highs of 20.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game while leading the Wildcats to a 24-6 record, the ECC regular-season championship and an NCAA tournament berth. He totaled 17 double-doubles on the season, ranking first among all ECC players and sixth nationally. He also led the league in field goal percentage (58.6%) and ranked second in both scoring and rebounding.

The 6-foot-9 Sischo has already impressed this season as well, posting consecutive double-doubles during a pair of high-profile exhibition games against the likes of the University at Buffalo and Syracuse University.

"They did some good things, especially offensively and their big fella, Sischo really was a load for us, and we didn't have an answer for him," said Buffalo head coach Jim Whitesell following last Thursday's exhibition contest. Sischo posted 28 points and 12 rebounds in the game, numbers that no player had achieved against the Bulls over the last three seasons.

Legendary Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim was also impressed by the Wildcats, and Sischo in particular following his 15-point, 12-rebound outing in Saturday's exhibition game at the Dome. Boeheim said, "That was a great game for us [against a] really, really well-coached team, veteran team. The big kid inside [Sischo] is really good, a smart player."

Sischo and the Wildcats will get their final exhibition tune-up opportunity tonight as they host Mohawk College out of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association for a 7 p.m. tip-off at Lumsden Gymnasium. The ball goes up for real this weekend (Nov. 1-2) as the Wildcats head to the St. Joseph (Mo.) Civic Arena for the Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic where they'll take on defending national champion Northwest Missouri State University and Missouri Western State University.

Daemen College features the only NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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