Skip To Main Content

Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
mbb senior night
Senior men's basketball players and cheerleaders were honored prior to tonight's game
90
Dist. Columbia UDCM 10-15, 5-8 ECC
93
Winner Daemen DAEM 22-6, 11-3 ECC
Dist. Columbia UDCM
10-15, 5-8 ECC
90
Final
93
Daemen DAEM
22-6, 11-3 ECC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 OT 1 F
Dist. Columbia UDCM 40 43 7 90
Daemen DAEM 53 30 10 93

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

Wildcats Survive Firebirds On Senior Night

Daemen Rallies For Overtime Win

AMHERST, N.Y. - Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) scored the tying basket near the end of regulation and the go-ahead layup in the final minute of overtime to lead Daemen to a wild 93-90 win over District of Columbia in an East Coast Conference contest tonight. A standing room only crowd at Lumsden Gymnasium was treated to another thriller as the Wildcats built an 18-point first half lead, but needed a late rally to knock off the upset-minded Firebirds. 

Daemen shot an unconscionable 11-of-14 from three-point range in the first half, building a 53-40 advantage by halftime. UDC managed to chip away and built a four-point lead with 1:03 left in regulation. Sischo's short baseline jumper with 1.3 seconds left evened things up and forced the extra session. In overtime, Daemen outscored UDC 8-2 over the final 2:11, pulling ahead on Sischo's layup with 19 ticks remaining.

The win pushes Daemen to 22-6 overall and 11-3 in conference play. The Wildcats, who clinched their fifth-straight conference tournament berth with Sunday's 96-79 over Mercy, remain in contention for top-two seed and the corresponding bye into the ECC Championship semifinals. 

UDC dropped to 10-15 overall and 5-8 in the league. The Firebirds are among a group of four teams (also Molloy, New York Tech and Queens) fighting for three remaining conference tournament berths. The loss stopped UDC from moving into a fourth-place tie with idle Molloy.

IMPACT PLAYERS
  • Sischo scored a game-high 27 points to pace a quartet of double-figure scorers for the Wildcats. He shot 9-of-14 from the field and 8-of-12 at the charity stripe while adding six rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot. It marked his 20th game this season with 20 or more points, and his 12th with 25+.
  • Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.) canned 5-of-8 from three-point range and finished with 19 points and three steals.
  • Joey Wallace (Rochester, N.Y.) and Breon Harris (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) tossed in 18 and 15 points, respectively. Wallace added a game-high 11 rebounds - his third-straight double-double - and five assists. Harris swiped three steals and his backcourt mate Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y.) contributed seven points and a game-high six assists.
  • UDC was led by a trio of 20-point scorers. Zachary Olukanni scored 17 of his team-high 23 points in the first half. Aaren Smith scored 18 of his 20 points in the second half. And, Juanye Colon totaled 22 points, including a 5-of-6 showing from three-point range.

PERIOD-BY-PERIOD SUMMARY
First Half (Daemen 53, UDC 40) - Daemen scored the game's first seven points prompting a UDC timeout just 1:06 into the contest. The game-opening run included a pair of free throws from senior walk-on Jeffrey Duah (Bronx, N.Y.) who got the start tonight as Daemen celebrated Senior Night. The Daemen lead jumped to double figures (17-7) on a Wallace three-pointer and increased to 47-29 when Harris drilled a triple at the 2:23 mark. The lead was 50-32 following a Tajmin Holt (Rochester, N.Y.) three-pointer - Daemen's 10th of the half - before UDC closed the period on an 8-3 spurt to pull within 13 at the break. Daemen shot 61 percent in the period (18-for-29), but uDC wasn't far off as they connected on 13-of-25 from the field (52%). 

Second Half (UDC 43, Daemen 30) - Daemen's three-point well dried up after halftime and UDC took advantage. A 15-5 spurt flipped a nine-point deficit (63-54) into the Firebirds' first lead of the game (69-68). Reserve guards Quran Dublin and Cheyenne Nettleton canned three-pointers in the run, as did UDC sharp-shooter Colon. The teams traded the lead four times in the final 6:18, including a personal 5-0 run by Smith that put the Firebirds on top 79-75 with 2:30 to play. Daemen cut it to a two-point deficit twice, but each was met with UDC scores - a Nettleton floater and a Smith jumper, the second of which made it 83-79 with 63 seconds left. The third time was the charm for Daemen as a pair of Sarkis free throws was followed by a defensive stop. After a pair of field goal attempts didn't find the mark, Daemen had the ball out of bounds under their own hoop with 3.4 seconds remaining. The inbounds pass came to Sischo who sunk a short jumper while being fouled with just 1.3 ticks left. His potential game-winning free throw was off and the game headed to overtime tied at 83-83.

Overtime (Daemen 10, UDC 7) - Kerry Kirkwood picked an opportune time for his first three-pointer of the game. His strike from downtown at the 2:32 mark put the Firebirds ahead 88-85, but the lead was short-lived. Less than a minute later, Daemen forged ahead 89-88 when Redband made good on three freebies after being fouled behind the arc. Nettleton countered with a pair of free throws for UDC, giving th Firebirds a 90-89 advantage with 1:18 to go. Sischo split a pair at the line with 1:03 left to tie the score, and following a defensive stop, Harris drove the lane and dished off to an open Sischo who converted from in close, giving Daemen a lead they would finally not relinquish. Smith's tying attempt on a strong drive down the lane was made tougher by the contest of Sischo, and Holt came flying in to grab the rebound. After being fouled, Redband made one-of-two at the charity stripe, leaving the door open for a potential second overtime. But, Olukanni's running three-point attempt from 25 feet out was off the mark as time expired.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
  • Daemen finished 12-for-26 from three-point range (46.2%), making just one after halftime. It marks the Wildcats' eighth-straight game with at least 10 three-point field goals. Daemen is averaging 12.5 made threes per game and shooting 45 percent from downtown (100-for-221) in that span. Daemen leads the ECC in three-pointers made per game (10.0) and three-point shooting percentage (39.2%) this season.
  • UDC finished with the advantage from behind the arc, shooting 13-for-31 from deep (41.9%). The 13 made threes were a season-high.
  • UDC was whistled for 28 fouls in the game resulting in 34 free throws for the hosts. Daemen outscored UDC by 10 (23-13) from the free throw line.

GAME NOTES
  • Daemen is No. 7 in the official NCAA Division II East Region rankings released earlier this week. The NCAA's Regional Advisory Committee publishes a 10-team ranking in each of the three weeks leading up to the NCAA tournament selection show on March 8.
  • Daemen is also ranked No. 4 in the Division II Sports Information of Directors of America (D2SIDA) East Region media poll and the Wildcats are receiving votes in the D2SIDA top-25 national poll.
  • Daemen picked up a sweep of their season series with UDC. The Wildcats had defeated the Firebirds 65-61 in Washington, D.C. last month. Daemen now owns a 13-2 lead in the all-time series. The Wildcats have won eight-straight meetings with UDC.
  • Sischo's 27 points give him 653 this season. Only David Skolen (699 points in 1989-90) and Rob Robinson (767 points in 1990-91) have scored more total points in a single season in Daemen history.
  • Sischo also became just the fifth player in team history to record 300 rebounds in a season. His 303 rebounds this season rank seventh in team history for a single season.
  • Sischo's overtime layup brings his career point total to 1,700 (sixth al-time) and his career field goal total to 674. He stands 14 field goals shy of passing Skolen (287) for Daemen's all-time record.
  • Harris' three steals move him past Mark Coppola and into sole possession of third place on Daemen's all-time list. Harris has totaled 171 steals in 94 career games.
  • Redband has made at least one three-pointer in 58 of the last 62 games, and tonight's performance marked the 22nd game in his career with at least five triples. He leads the ECC with 94 three-pointers this season - just six shy of joining Skolen as the only players in team history with 100 threes in a season. Already Daemen's all-time leader in three-point field goals, Redband's career total stands at 310. He stands third all-time in ECC history, 24 shy of the conference's all-time record (334) held by Mike Kuhnes of Queens.
  • The win was Daemen's 49th-straight when reaching the 90-point plateau. Since the start of the 2009-10 season, Daemen is 79-2 when scoring 90+ points. Their last loss when scoring in the 90's came January 7, 2014 at Dominican College (98-93, overtime).
  • It was Daemen's first overtime game since an 82-79 win over St. Thomas Aquinas on January 25, 2019. The Wildcats have won their last three overtime games 
  • Daemen improved to 14-1 at home this season. The Wildcats have won 36 of their last 39 home games, and are now 111-15 at home since the start of the 2011-12 season.
  • Daemen has won eight of their last nine games (four-straight wins). The Wildcats are in the midst of their seventh 20-win campaign in the last nine seasons. They have not won less than 19 games since the 2010-11 season. 

NEXT JUMP BALL
Daemen closes the regular season on the road next weekend. The Wildcats will visit Molloy, the ECC's fourth place team, on Friday, February 28. That will be followed by the regular season finale at New York Tech on Sunday, March 1. 
 
Print Friendly Version