Skip To Main Content

Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
breon harris mbb vs syracuse
Breon Harris scored 13 of his 22 points in the final five minutes, but it wasn't enough to lift Daemen past STAC today
80
Daemen DAEM 11-2, 2-1 ECC
87
Winner St. Thomas Aquinas STAC-M 10-1, 3-0 ECC
Daemen DAEM
11-2, 2-1 ECC
80
Final
87
St. Thomas Aquinas STAC-M
10-1, 3-0 ECC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Daemen DAEM 37 43 80
St. Thomas Aquinas STAC-M 40 47 87

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | By Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications

Men's Basketball Winning Streak Snapped At St. Thomas Aquinas

Late Wildcat Rally Comes Up Short As Host Spartans Win Battle Of Nationally-Ranked Squads

SPARKILL, N.Y. - St. Thomas Aquinas College fended off a late Daemen College rally to win 87-80 in a meeting of nationally-ranked men's basketball teams today at Aquinas Hall. After building an 11-point lead down the stretch, the host Spartans allowed Daemen to creep within three points with 17 seconds to go, before ultimately salting it away at the charity stripe.

The game featured two of the premier teams in the East Coast Conference and NCAA Division II East Region. Daemen came into the contest ranked No. 8 in both the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) national polls - the program's highest-ever ascent. St. Thomas Aquinas is ranked No. 24 in the NABC poll and No. 17 in the D2SIDA polls. In addition, Daemen (No. 1) and STAC (No. 2) occupy the top two positions in the D2SIDA East Region media poll, and no Division II programs in New York State (or the ECC) have achieved more wins than the Wildcats (137) and Spartans (152) since the start of the 2013-14 season.

The loss snapped Daemen's 11-game winning streak, dropping the Wildcats to 11-2 overall and 2-1 in ECC play this season. The Wildcats came into the game looking to keep pace with Division I Liberty University for the longest active winning streak in the country across all NCAA divisions (Liberty defeated Vanderbilt University on Saturday to extend their streak to 12 in a row). Before today, Daemen's only loss came in their season opener (Nov.  1) against defending national champion Northwest Missouri State University.

STAC improved to 10-1 overall, and remained unbeaten (3-0) in conference play. The Spartans have won four straight games, and improved to 45-5 in their last 50 home games dating back to the start of the 2016-17 season.

TOP PERFORMERS 
  • Six STAC players scored at least nine points. Sophomore guard Demetre Roberts led the way with 23 points, seven rebounds and three assists. The reigning ECC Rookie of the Year connected on 7-of-14 field goal attempts, including 4-of-7 from three-point range. 
  • Kevin Lynch, Sekou Cisse, Grant Singleton and Osbel Caraballo totaled 13 points apiece,putting all five Spartan starters into double figures. Caraballo collected a team-high 11 boards, and Cisse chased down nine caroms. 
  • Avante Gilbert came off the bench to score nine for the Spartans, all in the first half.
  • The loss spoiled another solid outing from Daemen big man Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.). The redshirt junior center shot 12-for-18 from the field and finished with game-highs of 30 points and 13 rebounds. It marks Sischo's 11th double-double of the season, and his fourth when scoring at least 30 points. 
  • Senior guard Breon Harris (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) came off the bench to score a season-high 22 points - 13 of which came in the final five minutes as he sparked the Wildcat rally.
  • Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.) canned a quartet of three-pointers, including the 250th of his career, and finished with 18 points. 

HOW IT HAPPENED
  • Daemen led for the majority of the opening half. They built an early eight-point lead (19-11), but STAC whittled that away and went ahead briefly (22-21) on a three-pointer by Roberts.
  • Daemen answered with a triple by Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y.) to regain the lead - an edge they would not relinquish until the hosts scored the final five points of the half. Gilbert's jumper with 1:03 left in the half evened the count at 37-37, and after any empty Daemen possession, Roberts buried another triple to give STAC a 40-37 lead at the break. 
  • The Wildcats pulled within a point two times early in the second half, but STAC never lost the lead. Leading 49-45, the Spartans ripped up seven unanswered points to open up the game's first double-figure lead. Caraballo's jumper with 10:34 to go put them ahead 58-47. 
  • Daemen battled back, cutting the deficit to 67-63 on a jumper by Sischo with 4:18 to go. Roberts missed a three on the other end, but Caraballo came up with a huge offensive rebound, and Roberts nailed a second-chance three-pointer to provide some breathing room. 
  • After Sischo brought Daemen within six points (73-67) with under two minutes to go, Roberts came through again with a teardrop floater to make it a three-possession game.
  • STAC led by nine (81-72) when Caraballo converted a pair of free throws with 33 ticks left. Harris hit a jumper for Daemen, and following a STAC turnover, he drilled a pull-up three to make it just a four-point game (81-77) with under 20 seconds to play. Singleton responded with two free throws for the Spartans, but Redband was hacked on his three-point attempt with 17 seconds remaining. He made good on all three of the resulting free throws, pulling Daemen within a single possession, trailing 83-80. That's as close as it would get though as Caraballa and Singleton hit four throws in the waning seconds to seal the deal.
  • STAC shot 14-of-16 at the charity stripe in the final two minutes, They outscored Daemen 25-17 from the free throw line in the game.
  • The Spartans enjoyed 50.9 percent shooting in the game, making 28 of their 55 field goal attempts. Daemen had been allowing just 39 percent shooting over their last four contests. 
  • Daemen, which came in as the ECC leader in field goal percentage (49.1%), made 27-of-59 shots from the field (45.8%) and 9-of-24 from three-point range (37.5%). 

GAME NOTES
  • STAC did a fine job on the backboard, out-rebounding Daemen 38-29 - the first time Daemen has been out-rebounded this season. The Wildcats, who were held to a season-low six offensive rebounds today, came into the game with the ECC's best average rebounding margin (+9.6).
  • STAC held a 13-9 advantage in second-chance points, the first time Daemen had been outscored in that category since Nov. 9 vs. Nyack College.
  • The 11-game winning streak that was snapped for Daemen will go down as the longest of the program's NCAA Division II era (2015-present). The Wildcats have had four winning streaks of at least nine games since the start of the 2018-19 season. 
  • STAC improved to 15-5 all-time against Daemen, including a 6-2 mark in games played at Aquinas Hall. Today's game marked the 12th meeting between the two since the start of the 2015-16 season. The Wildcats and Spartans have met in conference tournament play three times in that stretch. The teams split their regular season series last year with each winning on their home floor. Four of the last five meetings have been decided by seven points or less.
  • Although they fell behind, there perhaps wasn't great cause for concern as Daemen has rallied from second-half deficits on six occasions this season. They've overcome second-half deficits of five (vs. Missouri Western), 15 (vs. Felician), three (vs. Nyack), eight (vs. Mercyhurst), nine (vs. Le Moyne) and seven points (vs. Wilmington) to win games this season. 
  • Sischo has now scored 20+ points in 11 of 13 games this season. Today's production marked his fourth 30-point game of the season and the ninth of his career. He's averaging 25.8 points and 13.5 rebounds per game this season, and has now tallied 36 double-doubles in 71 career games.
  • Redband now has 252 three-point field goals in his career. He's just the third player in team history to reach 250, and he stands 36 shy of Brian Montanaro's program record (288) established from 2002-06. Redband also passed Kevin Lange for 15th place on Daemen's all-time scoring list. He's totaled 1,161 points in 101 career games played. 
  • Daemen is now 52-10 in games played since Dec. 31, 2017. Three of the 10 losses have come against STAC. 
  • It marked Daemen's first loss when scoring at least 80 points since a 110-83 setback at nationally-ranked St. Edward's University on Jan. 6, 2019.
  • When the Wildcats and Spartans meet again on February 14 at Lumsden Gymnasium, the game will be broadcast as part of the NCAA Division II Basketball Showcase, a series that highlights marquee matchups from around the country throughout the season. 

NEXT JUMP BALL
The Wildcats will play their final game before the NCAA-mandated holiday break on Thursday, December 19 when they visit the College of St. Rose for a non-conference tussle in the New York State Capital Region. 
Print Friendly Version