Sischo, MacDonald Grab Major Awards To Headline All-Conference Selections

Sischo, Redband, Hamilton & Harris Earn All-ECC Accolades

3/8/2019 7:28:00 PM

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

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - Daemen College redshirt sophomore center Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) and head men's basketball coach Mike MacDonald were among the major award recipients this evening at the East Coast Conference Men's and Women's Basketball Championships banquet held on the campus of the University of Bridgeport. Sischo was named the ECC Player of the Year as well as to the All-ECC first-team, while MacDonald earned ECC Coach of the Year honors. In addition, Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.) and Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y.) were named to the All-ECC second-team, and Breon Harris (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) earned All-ECC third-team honors. It marks the second straight season that Daemen has placed four players on the All-ECC teams which are selected by a vote of the league's 10 head coaches.

Much was expected of Sischo after he was named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year back in October, and the 6-foot-9 center hasn't disappointed the Wildcat faithful. He's appeared in 26 games this season, and leads the team in scoring (21.3 ppg) and rebounding (10.4 rpg). He finished the regular season as the ECC leader in field goal percentage (.586), and also second in the league in scoring and rebounding. His 17 double-doubles this season are the most for a Daemen player since Gerald Beverly's 19 during the 2014-15 campaign, and they rank fourth among the national leaders. Sischo also ranks 25th in scoring, 20th in field goal percentage and 14th in rebounding among the NCAA Division II leaders. His scoring and rebounding acumen recently led to his inclusion in an NCAA.com story naming him as the stop statistical center in the country this season.

Sischo has been a five-time ECC Player of the Week selection, and a one-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week honoree this season. He recently became just the 10th player in team history surpass 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in a career, needing only 56 games to do so. He's the first Daemen player with more than 250 rebounds in consecutive seasons since Beverly in 2013-14 and 2014-15, and he stands just 13 points shy of breaking Rob Robinson's program record for total points by sophomore. His 555 points and 270 rebounds currently rank 10th in team history for a single season. The announcement today marked Sischo's second straight first-team All-ECC selection.

Redband earns All-ECC honors for the second straight season after being named to the third-team in 2017-18. The 6-foot-7 redshirt junior forward increased his statistical production, and has placed himself among the preeminent shooters in the ECC and the country. Appearing in all 28 games and making 27 starts, Redband is contributing career-highs of 13.1 points and 5,5 rebounds per game, while shooting 47 percent from the field and 46 percent from three-point range. He has done the majority of his offensive work from downtown, canning 75-of-164 three-point attempts this season. He's the first Daemen player with 60 or more three-pointers in three successive seasons since Brian Montanaro did so four times from 2002-06. Redband ranks second in the ECC in total three-pointers and three-point shooting percentage. Redband is also presently 15th in the country in three-point shooting accuracy, and he ranks in the top-100 in both total three-point field goals and three-point field goals made per game (2.68). A one-time ECC Player of the Week and two-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week selection this season, Redband has made at least one three-pointer in 30 of the last 32 games, and recently became just the fifth player in team history with 200 three-pointers. His 75 three-pointers this season are tied for ninth in team history for a single season, and he ranks fourth in team history with 212 total three-pointers. Redband currently stands just eight points shy of 1,000 for his career.

Hamilton picks up the first All-ECC nod of his career as he re-emerged as one of the premier wing players in the league.. After missing the final 20 games of the 2017-18 season, the 6-foot-4 redshirt senior is the only Daemen player to start all 28 contets this season, and is contributing For the season, he's averaging 12.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. He registered the second double-double of his career (12 points, 10 rebounds) in an early-season win over Slippery Rock University, and scored 24 points in Daemen's 78-70 win over rival Roberts Wesleyan College on Dec. 5, including 11 points during game-closing 20-7 run. He posted his best outings of the season in big-time matchups against nationally-ranked opponents, canning six three-pointers and matching his career-high with 26 points in a win over #4/#4 St. Anselm College, and scoring 22 points, including the go-ahead layup in overtime, in an 82-79 defeat of #11.#12 St. Thomas Aquinas College. Hamilton became the 23rd member of Daemen's 1,000-point club when he scored his milestone bucket during an 89-69 win over Mercy College on Mar. 3.

Like Redband, Harris is now a back-to-back All-ECC honoree (also third-team honors last season). Harris opened the 2018-19 season by earning MVP honors at the ECC-CACC Challenge before heating up in December when he registered back-to-back 20-point games for the first time in his career. Harris' biggest game of the season came Jan. 18 at Mercy where he scored 24 points, including five in the final 25 seconds that helped Daemen overcome a four-point deficit; his pull-up three-pointer - his career-high sixth of the night - pulled Daemen within a point, then he converted an acrobatic steal and layup which proved to be the difference in the game. For the season, he's producing 11.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.8 steals per game. His 52 three-point field goals rank eighth in the league, and he's also second among the ECC leaders in total steals (50). He's the first Daemen player with at least 50 steals in back-to-back seasons since Mark Coppola in 2011-12 and 2012-13, and he ranks 14th in team history with 123 total steals. Since being inserted into the starting lineup midway through last season, Harris has helped the Wildcats to a 41-6 record.

The maestro in charge of it all has been MacDonald who earns ECC Coach of the Year honors for the first time. He's guided the Wildcats to a 24-4 overall record, success that has vaulted them into the top-25 rankings for Division II this season (currently No. 12 in the D2SIDA national poll and No. 19 in the NABC national poll). MacDonald ahs also led Daemen to a 16-2 mark in ECC play which wrapped up the program's second ECC regular season title. The veteran mentor has earned a pair of milestone victories this season. His 350th career win came with Harris' heroics Jan. 18 at Mercy. He also registered his 100th win at Daemen in an 89-63 defeat of Queens College on Feb. 10, placing him among an elite fraternity of coaches who have achieved at least 100 victories as a head coach in each of the NCAA's three divisions. Including prior head coaching stints at Canisius College (1997-2006) and Medaille College (2006-14), MacDonald holds a career coaching record of 361-267 across 22 seasons.

This marks the seventh Coach of the Year accolade in MacDonald's career, and his second while at Daemen. He was named the Basketball Coaches Association of New York (BCANY) Division II Coach of the Year for his inaugural season with the Wildcats (2014-15), a year in which he led the team to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) Division I national championship during their final season of non-postseason eligibility at the NCAA Division II level. MacDonald was also the BCANY Division I Coach of the Year for the 2000-01 season while at Canisius, and he was a four-time Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year honoree during his Medaille tenure. Since taking over at Daemen, MacDonald has led the Wildcats to a 105-41 record; the team's 105 wins in the span are second among all East Coast Conference and New York State Division II teams.

The ECC regular season champs open conference tournament play as the No. 1 seed at this weekend's ECC Championship tournament being held at Bridgeport's Harvey Hubbell Gymnasium. The Wildcats take on tournament-host and fourth-seeded Bridgeport in the first of two semifinal games tomorrow with tip-off slated for 5 p.m.

Additional ECC major award winners this evening included Curits Jenkins of Molloy (Defensive Player of the Year) and Demetre Roberts of St. Thomas Aquinas (Rookie of the Year).

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