GAME INFORMATION & LINKS
Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic
St. Joseph, Mo. | St. Joseph Civic Arena | Tickets

Game #1
#22 Daemen Wildcats (0-0, 0-0 ECC) vs. #1 Northwest Missouri State Bearcats (0-0, 0-0 MIAA)
Friday, Nov. 1 |  5:30 p.m. (CDT)
Watch Live (via MIAA Network): single game $12; entire event $20
Live Stats
Game Notes

Game #2 
#22 Daemen Wildcats vs. Missouri Western State Griffons (0-0, 0-0 MIAA)
Saturday, Nov. 2 | 7:45 PM (CDT)
Watch Live (via MIAA Network): single game $12; entire event $20
Live Stats

JUMP BALL
The 2019-20 regular season is upon us as the Daemen Wildcats open up in a prestigious way at the invitation-only Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic - a two-day NCAA Division II basketball extravaganza that features eight total teams, five of which are ranked in the NABC preseason top-25 poll. Daemen's opening-day test may be the toughest of the tournament field as the Wildcats will face defending national champion Northwest Missouri State, winners of their last 38 games and ranked No. 1 in the nation to start the season. The Bearcats became only the fifth Division II program to complete a perfect season en route to their second national title in the last three seasons. Daemen will close the event by facing Missouri Western State, one of only three teams to play Northwest Missouri State to a single-digit game on their home floor last season. The Griffons return the bulk of their roster and are making their second straight appearance at the SCB National Hall of Fame Classic. 

WHAT A RIDE
The 2018-19 season was one for the record books at Daemen as the Wildcats captured their second East Coast Conference regular season title, sat atop the regional rankings for much of the campaign, ascended into the top-25 national polls for the first time as an NCAA Division II member and garnered the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. The Wildcats rattled off wins in 11 of their first 12 games, including a 78-72 defeat of previously unbeaten St. Anselm who came into the Jan. 2 contest ranked No. 4 in both Division II national polls. Daemen embarked on a 10-game winning streak beginning in mid-January, a stretch that vaulted them to the top of the regional poll and as high as No. 10 (D2SIDA) and No. 13 (NABC) in the top-25 national polls. It marked the Wildcats' longest winning streak since the 2013-14 season when they won 14 consecutive games. The Wildcats wrapped up the ECC regular season title with a 93-71 defeat of Bridgeport on March 3. They entered the ECC Championship tournament as the No. 1 seed, but were upset by fourth-seeded Bridgeport in game played at UB's Hubbell Gymnasium. Despite the conference tournament loss, Daemen was awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, earning the No. 5 seed to the East Region Championship. They made their NCAA tourney debut March 16, but saw their season come to an end with a 72-67 loss to fourth-seeded New Haven. The team's 24 wins this season were the most since their transition to NCAA Division Ii.

BECOMING THE NORM
Daemen's 108-63 win over LIU Post last Feb. 15 was their 20th of the 2018-19 season. It marked Daemen's sixth 20-win campaign in the last eight seasons. Daemen has not won less than 19 games in a season since the 2010-11 campaign. Finishing the year at 24-6, it marked the program's most in a season since going 27-6 during the 2012-13 campaign, a year before the Wildcats began play as members of the East Coast Conference. 

DEFENDING THE DEN
Daemen posted a 15-1 record at the friendly confines of Lumsden Gymnasium last season, reaching double-figure home wins for the seventh time in the last eight seasons, and establishing a new benchmark for home-court wins in a single season. Daemen's 14th home win of the season came on March 1 with an 89-69 defeat of Mercy, matching the prior team record which was established during both the 1999-2000 and 2016-17 seasons. The Wildcats broke that mark with a 93-71 win over Bridgeport in the regular-season finale on March 3. The Wildcats have won 23 of their last 25 home games dating back to the 2017-18 season, as well as their last eight in a row. Since joining the ECC (2013-14 season), Daemen is 48-9 in home conference games (.842 winning percentage). Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Daemen is 97-14 at Lumsden Gymnasium (.874 winning percentage). Of those 14 losses, six have been decided by three points or fewer, including three by just a single point.  

RETURN OF THE MAC
Mike MacDonald returns to the bench for his sixth season as Daemen's head coach, and his 23rd overall as a collegiate head coach. Since beginning to roam the Daemen sidelines, MacDonald has led the Wildcats to a 105-43 overall record. The Wildcats have won at least 19 games in each of MacDonald's five seasons, and the team's 105 victories in that span are the second most among all NCAA Division II programs in New York State, as well as all East Coast Conference teams. He recorded the 100th win of his Daemen tenure last Feb. 10 against Queens, placing him in an elite fraternity of coaches that have achieved at least 100 wins in each of the NCAA's three divisions. He went on to be named the East Coast Conference, NABC District and Basketball Coaches Association of New York Division II Coach of the Year following the 2018-19 season. 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 enters the 2019-20 season with a career record of 361-269.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
For the first time as a member of NCAA Division II, Daemen opens the season as a nationally-ranked team. The Wildcats are No. 22 in the NABC preseason top-25 poll which was released in late October. Daemen's preseason ranking comes after spending the final seven weeks of the 2018-19 season included in the NABC poll. The Wildcats debuted in the poll at No. 23 last January 29, and rose as high as No. 13 (Feb. 19) before finishing the season at No. 22. Daemen will play three games against teams included in the preseason top-25, and four more against teams that are presently receiving votes. The Wildcats open the regular season this Friday, Nov. 1 against No. 1 Northwest Missouri State University as part of the Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic. The Bearcats are coming off a perfect 38-0 season, and have won two of the last three national championships. Additional games against top-25 teams come Nov. 16 when the Wildcats host No. 4 West Liberty University, and Jan. 1 at No. 21 Saint Anselm College. The Daemen-Saint Anselm matchup will the second in as many seasons. The Wildcats defeated the Hawks, then ranked No. 4 in the NABC poll, 78-72 at Lumsden Gymnasium last January.

GREAT ECC-XPECTATIONS
For the first time since joining the East Coast Conference, the league's coaches have predicted a first-place finish for Daemen. The Wildcats sit atop the 2019-20 ECC preseason poll which was released in late October. Daemen amassed 80 total points in the poll, grabbing eight of nine first-place votes. St. Thomas Aquinas College picked up the remaining first-place vote, finishing with 72 points in the poll to sit at No. 2. The University of Bridgeport (64 points) and defending ECC tournament champion Molloy College (53 points) round out the top four teams. Daemen holds an 87-27 all-time record in ECC contests dating back to the 2013-14 season. Only St. Thomas Aquinas (89-24) holds more wins in ECC games during that time frame. The Wildcats have finished third or better in all six seasons since joining the league. 

TUNE-UPS
In preparation for the 2019-20 regular season, Daemen played a trio of exhibition contests, including two against highly-touted Division I programs Buffalo and Syracuse. Despite having just seven days of practice under their belt, Daemen opened the brief exhibition season with a 111-73 loss against a Buffalo team that spent the majority of the 2018-19 season ranked among the top-25 teams in the country, finishing the year with a 32-4 overall record and a trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Less than 48 hours later the Wildcats made their first-ever appearance at the iconic Carrier Dome on the campus of SU, falling to the Orange and legendary head coach Jim Boeheim 90-71. It left as a decent a feeling as one can have following a 19-point defeat at the Wildcats played SU even (43-43) over the final 20 minutes. The exhibition slate wrapped up on Oct. 29 with Daemen blasting Mohawk (116-54) out of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association. Andrew Sischo led the Wildcats by averaging 18.3 points and 10.3 rebounds over the three contests. He put up 28 points and 12 rebounds against Buffalo, numbers that no player has achieved against the Bulls in the last three seasons, and followed up with another double-double (15 points, 12 rebounds) at Syracuse. Breon Harris netted a team-high 23 points at the Carrier Dome, and finished the exhibition slate averaging 10.7 points per game. Newcomer Joey Wallace also made his presence felt, averaging 10.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. 

FIRST THINGS FIRST
Daemen will bring a 17-game winning streak in regular-season openers into Friday's contest vs. Northwest Missouri State. 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.

EVERYTHING'S WAITING FOR YOU DOWNTOWN
Daemen will make their first-ever appearance at KeyBank Center, downtown Buffalo's largest sports venue, on Saturday, Nov. 23 when the Wildcats host Wilmington (Del.). The 19,000-seat arena has been the site of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament six times since its opening in 1996. The Daemen-Wilmington game comes as part of a doubleheader with Division I teams from Canisius and St. Bonaventure hitting the KeyBank hardwood that day as well. Tickets for the doubleheader are on sale now at daemenwildcats.com/KeyBankTix (use password "WILDCATS" to unlock Daemen ticket block).  

MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Redshirt-junior center Andrew Sischo headlines Daemen's returning players after earning East Coast Conference and Division II Conference Commissioner's Association East Region Player of the Year honors in 2018-19. A two-time first-team All-ECC selection, Sischo has been downright dominant over the last two seasons for the Wildcats. He has set new team benchmarks for points scored by a freshman (462) and sophomore (585), and is already one of only 10 players in program history with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds. Sischo recorded 17 double-doubles last season, ranking first among all ECC players and sixth nationally, while also becoming just the sixth player in team history to average a double-double (20.9 ppg, 10.1 rpg) for an entire season. In late October he was named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year, marking the second straight season that he's earned the accolade. 

THREE-DICULOUS SHOOTING
Over his first three collegiate seasons, forward Jeff Redband has established himself as one of the preeminent three-point shooters in the ECC, as well as among Daemen's all-time leaders. Redband is the first Daemen player with 60 or more three-pointers in three straight seasons since Brian Montanaro did so four straight times from 2002-06. A two-time All-ECC pick, including a second-team selection last season, Redband has appeared in all 88 games since the start of the 2016-17 season, making 85 starts and averaging 11.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. He ranks fourth in team history with 216 three-point field goals, and he's made at least one trifecta in 32 of the last 34 games. 

BREAKOUT BREON
Senior guard Breon Harris has helped Daemen to wins in 41 of 49 games since he was inserted into the starting lineup midway through the 2017-18 season. He's been a third-team All-ECC selection in each of the last two seasons, and has also earned ECC Championships All-Tournament Team honors twice in his career. After making just two three-point field goals over the first 21 games of his career, Harris has racked up 82 trifectas in his last 48 games, making at least one in 41 games. He swiped 70 steals as a sophomore, the third-highest single-season total in team history and making him the first player with at least 70 since Russell John totaled 73 in 1990-91. Harris added 53 steals to his career total last season, becoming just the fifth player to lead the Wildcats in steals at least twice, and the first player with 50+ steals in consecutive seasons since Mark Coppola in 2011-12 and 2012-13. 

SHINING STAR-KIS
Redshirt-senior guard Jay Sarkis has been a fixture in the Daemen lineup since arriving on campus in 2015. A three-year starter, Sarkis has appeared in 82 of a possible 89 games (excluding a redshirt season in 2016-17), and made 76 starts. He's recorded at least one three-pointer in 68 games, totaling 147 triples in his career. Sarkis contributed 8.2 points and a team-best 3.1 assists per game in 2018-19. His finest season came a year earlier when he put up career-highs in points (372), assists (106) and rebounds (86), and finished the season ranking among the ECC's top-five statistical leaders in minutes (3rd), minutes per game (5th), three-point field goals (4th), three-point shooting percentage (5th) and assists (3rd).

FRESH FACES
The Wildcats welcome 10 new players to the fold this season to round out a large 20-player roster. While some of the newcomers are expected to redshirt, several are expected to make immediate impacts. Redshirt-senior guard Joey Wallace is the most experienced of the bunch. The son of former Syracuse star and NBA veteran John Wallace, Joey Wallace holds 85 games of Division II experience under his belt across parts of four seasons playing for Southern Connecticut State. The Rochester native contributed 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game across his tenure there. Buffalo natives Donte' Williams and Kyle Harris are also proven college players. Williams, a 6'4" guard/forward, has one season of remaining eligibility following previous stops at Southeastern Iowa Community College and California University (Pa.). He averaged 10.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game for the Vulcans last season. Harris comes over after a prolific junior college career at Erie Community College where he played for head coach Alex Nwora, a Daemen graduate and inductee of the Daemen Hall of Fame. Harris brings a winning pedigree (47-17 record at ECC) and tremendous three-point shooting ability (166 three-pointers in the last two seasons) to the Wildcats. Big man Chris Luke (7'0", Jr., C) gives the Wildcats some depth at the center position and freshmen Keith Slack and Ryan Salzberg will compete for minutes.

NORTHWEST MISSOURI STATE SCOUTING REPORT 
Head coach Ben McCollum has presided over one of the top NCAA Division II programs in the country, posting a 241-75 overall record over his first 10 seasons at Northwest Missouri State. The Bearcats compete as members of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, and are ranked No. 1 in the NABC preseason top-25 poll following a perfect 38-0 campaign that culminated last spring with their 64-58 defeat of Point Loma in the national championship game. It marked NMSU's second national title in the last three years as they've posted a 100-5 record in that span. At the conference level, McCollum has led the Bearcats to six consecutive MIAA regular-season championships and four straight MIAA tournament crowns. Gone from last season's championship team is All-American and MIAA Player of the Year Joey Witthus (21.1 ppg), but the Bearcats bring back seven letterwinners, including four starters. That group is headlined by sophomore guard Trevor Hudgins (2018-19 MIAA Freshman of the Year, first-team All-MIAA) and junior forward Ryan Hawkins (MIAA Defensive Player of the Year, second-team All-MIAA). Hudgins shot 53% from the field and 46% from three-point range (72 three-pointers) while averaging 18.7 points per game. He also totaled 203 assists (5th nationally) and helped NMSU rank second nationally in assist/turnover ratio (1.78). Hawkins was stellar at both ends of the floor, averaging 13.9 points and a team-high 8.9 rebounds per game, while canning 81 three-pointers. He ranked seventh in the country with 83 steals. Incumbent starters Diego Bernard (Soph., G) and Ryan Welty (Sr., F) also return for the Bearcats. Not only did NSMU rattle of 38 straight wins, but they did so in dominant fashion; they're 20.7 scoring margin ranked first in the country, and they held opponents to just 61.7 points per game, third-best in the country. The Bearcats featured the three-point shot a lot last season, launching 988 attempts from downtown (5th in the country). They ranked 22nd in made three-pointers per game (10.6) and ninth in three-point field goal percentage (40.6) among the national leaders. They also ranked sixth in overall field goal percentage (51.1). The Bearcats played Duke to a six-point game (69-63) in their only exhibition contest last Saturday. Hudgins nailed seven three-pointers and scored a game-high 27 points. 

ALL-TIME SERIES
Daemen vs. Northwest Missouri State: 0-0
Streak: N/A
Last Meeting: N/A

MISSOURI WESTERN STATE SCOUTING REPORT 
Missouri Western State is a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. The Griffons are coached by Sundance Wicks who led the team to a 12-18 overall record and a 6-13 mark in MIAA play last season, his first with the program. The Griffons return 11 players from their 2018-19 team, including three who started at least 10 games. Sophomore guard Tyrell Carroll headlines the returning players after earning honorable mention All-MIAA honors last season when he averaged 14.3 points per game, and totaled a team-best 104 assists. Carroll finished with 111 made free throws last season, second-best on the Griffons and 12th-best in the MIAA. Senior guard Tyus Millhollin (10.7 ppg) and senior forward Beau Baker (18 starts) also return. Close games were the norm for Missouri Western last season as 19 of their 30 contests were decided by nine points or fewer. The Griffons posted a 10-9 record in those contests. They've dropped five consecutive games that were decided by single digits, including a two-point road loss (70-68) at eventual national champion Northwest Missouri State in the penultimate game of the season. The Griffons committed 640 fouls last season, ranking 287th nationally (out of 300 teams). Offensively, Missouri Western launched 783 three-pointers (ranking 51st nationally) but made just 32% of those attempts (ranking 261st nationally). The Griffons open the Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic by facing No. 9 Southern Nazarene on Friday. 

ALL-TIME SERIES
Daemen vs. Missouri Western State: 0-0
Streak: N/A
Last Meeting: N/A

UP NEXT
Daemen returns home for the ECC-CACC Challenge presented by Western New York Knee & Orthopedic Surgery PC which is slated for Nov. 8-9 at Lumsden Gymnasium. The Wildcats take a 9-1 all-time ECC-CACC Challenge record into the event that features fellow ECC member Roberts Wesleyan and CACC teams Nyack and Felician. Daemen meets Felician at 8 p.m. on Nov. 8, and closes the tournament the following day with a 4 p.m. contest vs. Nyack.