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Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
sischo mbb vs stac
92
Winner Daemen Daemen 23-6,12-3 ECC
78
Molloy Molloy 11-15,4-5 ECC
Winner
Daemen Daemen
23-6,12-3 ECC
92
Final
78
Molloy Molloy
11-15,4-5 ECC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Daemen Daemen 48 44 92
Molloy Molloy 27 51 78

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

Wildcats Keep Pace With ECC Leaders By Winning At Molloy

Sischo Sets Team & Conference Records For Field Goals In A Single Season

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's basketball team kept themselves in contention for a top-two seed in next week's East Coast Conference Championship tournament by knocking off red-hot Molloy College 92-78 tonight at Quealy Gymnasium. It marked Daemen's fifth-straight win and their ninth in the last 10 outings. 

The Wildcats, who have already clinched their fifth-straight conference tournament berth, improved to 23-6 overall and 12-3 in ECC play. Tonight's win pulls Daemen into a second-place tie with idle St. Thomas Aquinas College (22-5, 12-3 ECC) in the ECC standings with one regular season game remaining for each squad. Neither team can catch first-place University of Bridgeport (22-3, 14-1 ECC), but the coveted No. 2 seed and corresponding bye to the semifinal round of the conference tourney remains at stake. 

Molloy, which had just snapped Bridgeport's 17-game winning streak last Saturday at Quealy Gymnasium, saw their three-game winning streak come to an end, falling to 11-15 overall and 7-8 in ECC play. 

IMPACT PLAYERS
  • Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) led the way for Daemen, scoring 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting while adding 11 rebounds, two blocks and two steals. The 6-foot-9 redshirt junior center grabbed a couple pieces of history along the way, becoming the single season leader for made field goals in both program and ECC history. Sischo has totaled 260 field goals this season and tonight passed Daemen's record of 257 set by Chris Lewis back in 1989-90, as well as the ECC record of 252 set by Jeffrey Hayden of New York Tech in 2017-18. The production tonight also marked Sischo's 19th double-double of the season - one shy of the national lead within NCAA Division II. 
  • Joey Wallace (Rochester, N.Y.) narrowly missed a fourth-straight double-double, finishing with 18 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks. 
  • Breon Harris (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) added 18 points and a season-high five steals to the Daemen cause, and fellow starters Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.) and Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y.) combined for five three-pointers and 17 points. 
  • Senior guard Nick Corbett finished with a game-high 31 points to lead the Lions, canning 11-of-22 shots from the field. Pano Pavlidis (10 points) was the only other Molloy player to reach double figures. 

PERIOD-BY-PERIOD SUMMARY
First Half (Daemen 48, Molloy 27) - Daemen jumped out to a 19-6 lead less than five minutes into the contest. Molloy battled back and cut the deficit to 21-20 on a layup by Corbett. That's as close as they would get however as Daemen outscored the hosts 27-6 over the final 10 minutes of the period. The Wildcats emerged from a break in the action with a 22-2 spurt that changed the entire complexion of the contest. Sischo netted eight points in the run and Wallace's old-fashioned three-point play with 2:54 to go put Daemen ahead 44-23. The lead reached 22 points (46-24) when reserve guard Tajmin Holt (Rochester, N.Y.) made a pair of free throws with 1:15 left in the period. Sischo (12 points), Wallace and Harris (10 points each) combined for 32 of Daemen's 48 points, helping Daemen shoot 18-of-34 from the field (52.9%). The Wildcats turned 11 Molloy turnovers to generate 20 points. 

Second Half (Molloy 51, Daemen 44) - The second half was marred by sloppiness as the teams combined for 26 turnovers and 23 personal fouls. Molloy pulled within 56-40 on a three-pointer by Pavlidis, but Daemen came back with a quick 9-0 spurt - six points from Wallace and his assist on a Kyle Harris (Buffalo, N.Y.) three-pointer - to put the Wildcats ahead by 25 points (65-40) and expunge any thoughts of a miraculous Molloy comeback. The Daemen lead stayed above 20 points for much of the remainder of the contest, including with 4:40 to go when a dunk by Sischo made it 83-61. Molloy netted 17 points over the final 3:40 to make the final spread respectable. Corbett scored 21 points in the period. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
  • Daemen improved to 11-1 this season when shooting at least 50% from the field. The Wildcats made 32-of-61 shots from the floor and added a 21-of-25 showing from the free throw line (84%).  
  • The Wildcats managed to shoot just 7-for-23 from three-point range (30.4%) - their lowest output in total makes and percentage since shooting 6-of-19 (31.6%) in a four-point win at the University of the District of Columbia on January 19. Daemen had made 10+ three-pointers in the eight games since before tonight, shooting 45% from distance in that span. Daemen leads the ECC in three-pointers made per game (9.9) and three-point shooting percentage (38.9%) this season. 
  • Daemen racked up 44 points in the paint, their most since scoring 50 against Mercy College on December 13. The Wildcats also equaled their season-high with 24 fastbreak points.
  • Molloy was held to just 37.2% shooting overall (29-for-78), including 8-for-24 from three-point range (33.3%). Molloy had made 10+ three-pointers and shot at least 43% from downtown over the course of their three-game winning streak. 

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.
  • Tonight's win gives Daemen a sweep of their season series with Molloy. Daemen had defeated the Lions 91-83 at Lumsden Gymnasium on January 24. The Wildcats have won three-straight and own a 10-5 advantage in the all-time series. 
  • The win was Daemen's 50th-straight when reaching the 90-point plateau. Since the start of the 2009-10 season, Daemen is 80-2 when scoring 90+ points. Their last loss when scoring in the 90's came January 7, 2014 at Dominican College (98-93, overtime).
  • The game featured the ECC's two leading scorers in Daemen's Sischo and Molloy's Corbett. Sischo leads the ECC and ranks in the top-10 nationally in scoring, averaging 24.3 points per game this season. Tonight's output marked Sischo's 21st game this season and 42nd game in his career with 20+ points. Corbett is putting up 23.2 points per contest. He's now topped 30 points five times this season, including both contests against Daemen. 
  • In addition to his single season field goal records, Sischo now stands with 684 field goals in his career - just three shy of Daemen's program record (687) set by David Skolen from 1986-90. 
  • Sischo also moved into the top-10 in ECC history for total points in a single season with his performance tonight. He's now totaled 680 points this season placing him eighth on the ECC's single season points list. That total ranks third in Daemen's program history and places him just 20 points shy of becoming only the second Daemen player to reach 700 points in a season. The last (and only) to do so was Rob Robinson who scored 767 points during the 1990-91 season.
  • Now with 314 rebounds, Sischo moved past Daemen Hall of Famer and current Erie Community College head coach Alex Nwora for fifth place among Daemen's single season rebounding leaders.
  • Sischo has totaled 1,727 points, 858 rebounds, 87 blocks and 44 double-doubles in 86 games during his career. 
  • Redband has made at least one three-pointer in 59 of the last 63 games, and his three triples tonight bring his season total to 97. He is tied with Curtis Small of Southampton for fifth in ECC history for a single season, and stands just three shy of joining Skolen as the only players in Daemen history with 100 made three-pointers in a season. Now with 313 three-pointers in his career, Redband is Daemen's all-time leader and just 21 shy of the ECC's all-time mark (334) held by Mike Kuhnes of Queens. 
  • Redband's point total tonight included the 1,400th of his career. He's one of only 10 players in team history to reach that total. He ranks 10th all-time with 1,405 points in 117 games played.
  • Breon Harris continues to close in on 1,000 points. He's now totaled 976 points in 95 games played. Tonight he also became only the fourth player in team history to reach 175 steals. Harris leads Daemen and ranks fourth in the ECC with 50 steals this season. 
  • Wallace leads Daemen with 101 assists this season. He's the first Daemen player with 100+ assists in a season since teammate Jay Sarkis did so in 2017-18. Wallace is the only player in the ECC to be averaging at least 3.5 assists and 6.0 rebounds per game, and Daemen is now 16-2 this season when he records at least three assists. 
  • The Wildcats have posted 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 Sunday (March 1) when they visit New York Tech for a 3:30 p.m. tip-off. The Wildcats will watch intently as St. Thomas Aquinas ends their regular season Saturday (February 29) by hosting District of Columbia. A loss by STAC coupled with a Daemen win Sunday would give the Wildcats the No. 2 conference tournament seed that they covet. Should the teams end up tied, the conference tiebreaker system will go into effect. The ECC will announce final tournament seeds Sunday night. If Daemen ends up as the No. 3 seed, they will host a first-round home game against the No. 6 seed on Wednesday, March 4. 
 
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