FLUSHING, N.Y. - Redshirt junior Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) connected on 12-of-13 shots and totaled 25 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks to lead Daemen College to an 84-74 victory over Queens College here today in East Coast Conference men's basketball action.

Daemen improves to 19-6 overall and 8-3 in the ECC. The Wildcats remain in third place in the ECC standings. Queens, which had won three of its previous four games, dropped to 6-15 overall and 4-7 in the league.

The Wildcats are now just one win shy of reaching the 20-win plateau for the third-straight year and the seventh time in the past nine seasons.

IMPACT PLAYERS

• Daemen's five starters accounted for 73 of the team's 84 points.
• Sischo scored 15 of his 25 points in the first half and has now scored 20 or more points 18 times this season. It marked the 17th double-double of the year for Sischo, which leads the ECC and ranks second among all NCAA Division II players behind Sekou Sylla of The College of Saint Rose. Sylla registered his 18th double-double yesterday.
• Redshirt senior Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.) went 3-of-6 from three-point land in totaled 15 points and seven rebounds. The three trifectas gives him exactly 300 for his career. He becomes just the fifth player in the history of the ECC to record 300 or more three-pointers.
• Redshirt senior Joey Wallace (Rochester, N.Y.) scored 10 points in the second half and finished with 13 points, five rebounds and six assists—one shy of his season high.
• Redshirt senior Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y.) also reached double figures for the Wildcats, as he drained three three-pointers and totaled 11 points and six assists. He now stands just two points shy of 1,000 for his career.
• Junior guard Elijah Bovell scored a team-high 15 points for the host Knights, while classmate Dwayne Henry, Jr. added 12 points in just 22 minutes off the bench. Junior forward Eddie Mehmetaj, the younger brother of former Daemen standout Arif Mehmetaj, played 23 minutes off the bench and contributed eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Arif appeared in 57 games for Daemen from 2014-17, averaging 15.0 points per game in his career.
  

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Daemen jumped out to an 11-4 lead and later took a 20-12 advantage following a jumper by Sischo with 12:03 left in the first half. The Wildcats then went scoreless for nearly five minutes, which allowed the Knights to score 10 unanswered points and take a 22-20 lead. The Wildcats tied the game at 22-22 following a bucket by redshirt sophomore Tajmin Holt (Rochester, N.Y.) with 7:22 left in the half and the teams then traded points for the next two minutes. Queens held a 27-26 lead when the Wildcats embarked on a 12-4 run. A three-pointer by senior Breon Harris (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) with 1:21 left before intermission capped the run and gave Daemen a 38-31 lead. The Wildcats took a 38-34 lead into intermission.
• Daemen opened the second half with a three-pointer by Sarkis and the Wildcats maintained a lead between four and eight points for the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Daemen lead was seven points (65-58), when the Wildcats got a layup by Redband and then Wallace fed Sischo for an ally oop dunk that gave the Wildcats a an 11-point cushion (69-58) with 8:14 to play. The lead eventually moved to 16 points, 76-60, following back-to-back jumpers by Wallace with just over six minutes left. A trio of three-pointers by the Knights with under two minutes to play made things interesting, but Queens came no closer than eight points (82-74) down the stretch.
• Daemen made 31-of-58 field goals (53%) and went 10-of-22 from three-point land. The Wildcats also went a perfect 12-for-13 from the free throw line. Queens shot just 39-percent (26-of-67) from the field overall and made 13-of-30 from downtown. The hosts went 9-of-11 from the charity stripe.
  

GAME NOTES

• Daemen is ranked fourth in the latest Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) East Region media poll.
• Daemen has now prevailed in the last eight meetings between the two teams and owns a 13-2 lead in the all-time series. 
• Daemen leads the ECC in three-pointers made per game (9.6) and has now made at least 10 three-pointers in five-straight and 13 total games this season. 
• Redband, who leads the ECC with 84 three-pointers this season, has made at least one triple in 55 of the last 59 games. His 84 three-pointers this season is a career high, and he becomes just the fifth player in program history to make 80 or more three-pointers in a season. He is 16 three-pointers shy of becoming just the second player in program history to make 100 three-pointers in a season. The program's leader in career three-pointers made, he has made 300 three pointers in 113 career games.
• Redband also ranks 10th in career points among Daemen's all-time leaders with 1,358 points.
• Sischo became the sixth player in program history to score 1,600 career points during Friday's loss to nationally-ranked University of Bridgeport. He has totaled 1,633 points and 822 rebounds in 82 career games. He ranks sixth in career points and fourth in career rebounds among Daemen's all-time leaders.
• Sarkis has totaled 998 career points and 315 career assists and is set to become just the fifth player in team history with 1,000 points and 300 assists.
  

NEXT JUMP BALL
The Wildcats begin a stretch of three straight home games Friday (Feb. 14) when they host regionally-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas College in a key ECC game. The game will be featured nationwide as part of the National Collegiate Athletic Conference (NCAA) Division II Basketball Showcase.