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Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
wallace mbb vs stac
82
Daemen Daemen 23-7,12-4 ECC
85
Winner New York Tech NYIT 7-21,4-8 ECC
Daemen Daemen
23-7,12-4 ECC
82
Final
85
New York Tech NYIT
7-21,4-8 ECC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 OT 1 F
Daemen Daemen 31 40 11 82
New York Tech NYIT 30 41 14 85

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

Wildcats Suffer Overtime Loss In Regular Season Finale

Daemen Will Be #3 Seed In ECC Tourney; NY Tech Claims First Postseason Berth Since 2015

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's basketball team could not end the regular season on a high note, dropping an 85-82 overtime decision to New York Tech in East Coast Coast Conference action here today. The Wildcats, who entered today's game as winners of five-straight and nine of their last 10 games, forced the extra period with a driving layup from Joey Wallace (Rochester, N.Y.) late in regulation, but were outscored 14-11 in overtime despite shooting a perfect 4-for-4 from the field. 

Daemen ends the regular season at 23-7 overall and 12-4 in ECC play. The Wildcats finish in third place in the final conference standings. Daemen has placed third or better in all seven seasons since joining the ECC.  

The win was monumental for the host Bears as they clinched their first conference tournament berth since 2015. A loss would have ended their season, but they'll live to fight another day, ending the regular season at 7-21 overall and 6-10 in the league. 

ECC TOURNAMENT OUTLOOK
  • The six-team ECC Championship tournament will get underway this week with first-round games on campus sites (Wednesday, March 4). The semifinals (Saturday, March 7) and finals (Sunday, March 8) will held in our nation's capital at the University of the District of Columbia Sports Complex. 
  • Daemen will enter as the No. 3 seed and host No. 6 Queens College Wednesday night at Lumsden Gymnasium. The Wildcats swept the teams' two meetings this season and have won eight-straight overall in the series. The Daemen-Queens winner will advance to Saturday's semifinal against No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas College.
  • Wednesday's other first round matchup features No. 4 Molloy College hosting No. 5 New York Tech. The winner of that contest advances to Saturday's other semifinal where No. 1 University of Bridgeport awaits.
  • All ECC Championship games will be broadcast on the ECC Network, and Sunday's final will be broadcast across ESPN's streaming platforms as part of the NCAA Division II Basketball Showcase.

IMPACT PLAYERS
  • Jeffrey Hayden poured in a game-high 24 points to propel the Bears. He added 10 rebounds and three assists while shooting 11-of-23 from the field. 
  • Jordan Fuchs made a huge impact off the New York Tech bench, scoring 15 of his 19 points after halftime. He chipped in seven boards, three assists and three blocks as well.
  • Laurynas Stonkus (15 points, 5-of-9 from three-point range) and Marcus Saint-Furcy (12 points, eight assists) also buttered the bread for New York Tech. 
  • Wallace, who's in his first year with the Wildcats after transferring from Southern Connecticut State University, equaled his season-high for points (23) and added eight rebounds, seven assists, two blocks and two steals. 
  • Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) recorded his 20th double-double of the season, finishing with 23 points and 16 rebounds. The 6-foot-9 redshirt junior shot 10-for-16 from the field and became Daemen's all-time leader in career field goals in the process. Already the single-season leader in made field goals for both Daemen and ECC with 270 this season, Sischo has totaled 694 field goals in his career, breaking the Daemen record of 687 set by David Skolen from 1986-90. 
  • Breon Harris (Niagara Fals, N.Y.) notched 13 points, six rebounds, six steals and five assists, and Tajmin Holt (Rochester, N.Y.) came off the bench to score 10 points - the first double-figure game of his career. 

PERIOD-BY-PERIOD SUMMARY
First Half (Daemen 31, NY Tech 30) - The opening stanza featured eight lead changes as the Wildcats and Bears battled in a back-and-forth affair. Daemen offset sluggish shooting (12-for-36 FG) with a 22-16 rebounding advantage. The Wildcats gobbled up 10 offensive rebounds in the period resulting in an 8-2 advantage in second-chance scoring. An inside bucket by Sischo gave Daemen a 26-20 lead at the 4:44 mark, but the Bears came back with a 10-0 spurt, including five points from Hayden. Daemen freshman Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) ended the string of unanswered points as he buried a three-pointer with 1:06 to go and Holt scored on Daemen's last possession of the half to send them into halftime with a one-point lead. 

Second Half (New York Tech 41, Daemen 40) - An 11-3 run spanning the early portions of the second half put New York Tech ahead 44-37. Hayden scored three times and Fuchs nailed a three-pointer in the spurt. Daemen answered right back with a 12-2 run of their own. Wallace scored seven points and assisted on two other field goals, including a go-ahead trifecta by Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y.) with 12:22 to go. The lead changed hands twice more before Daemen went ahead 64-60 on Wallace's inside bucket at the 3:54 mark. The hosts responded by making three-straight three-pointers - two by Stonkus and one by Hayden. The 9-0 run took just 76 seconds and it put the Bears ahead 69-64 with 2:05 left in regulation. The deficit was still two posessions (71-67) after Fuchs made trwo free throws with 33 ticks remaining, but Wallace cut it in half with a drive and dunk. After Hayden missed back-to-back front ends of one-and-one free throws, Daemen got the tying basket with just 1.3 seconds left as Wallace went the length of the floor to force overtime. 

Overtime (NY Tech 14, Daemen 11) - The extra session provided two additional lead changes. After trading points early, including a pair of inside baskets by Sischo off of Wallace feeds, Tech took the lead for good when Stonkus snapped a 75-all tie with his fifth three-pointer of the contest. Their advantage reached 82-78 when Saint-Furcy made two freebies at the 1:18 mark, but Sischo scored inside again and then made two free throws of his own to pull the Wildcats even with 38 seconds left. Following a timeout, the Bears ran the clock down until Saint-Furcy nailed a pull-up jumper from just inside the arc and less than 10 ticks remaining. Daemen raced the ball to the other end but turned the ball over before they could get a tying or go-ahead attempt at the rim. Saint-Furcy left the door slightly cracked when he split a pair of free throws with less than two seconds on the clock, but a heave on Daemen's ensuing inboudns pass did not reach its intended target. 

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
  • Daemen finished 33-for-72 from the field for a respectable 45.8%, but the Wildcats were hurt by some uncharacteristic free throw shooting. The Wildcats shot just 9-for-16 from the charity stripe (56.3%), including 3-for-6 in overtime. The Wildcats came into this weekend ranked second in the ECC with a team free throw percentage of 75.1. It's the first time Daemen has shot sub-60% in a game with at least 10 free throw attempts since Feb. 25, 2018 when they made 9-of-18 in the same building against New York Tech. 
  • New York Tech shot 33-for-66 from the field (50%) and 9-for-23 from three-point range (39.1%). They are just the seventh team to shoot at least 50% from the field against Daemen this season (Daemen is 4-3 in those games).
  • Fueled by Fuchs and Stonkus, the hosts generated a 36-18 advantage in bench scoring. They also held a sizable edge in fastbreak points (26-10) - the most allowed by Daemen since Nyack College scored 24 on November 9. 

GAME NOTES
  • 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, and their 23 wins this season are one shy of last season's total - the most of Daemen's NCAA Division II era (2015-present). 
  • 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.
  • New York Tech snapped a nine-game losing streak in the all-time series with Daemen. It was their first win over the Wildcats since February 28, 2015 (78-67 at NY Tech). Daemen posted a 92-57 win over the Bears in late January. Daemen leads the all-time series 10-4. 
  • It was Daemen's first overtime loss since December 3, 2016 at District of Columbia (90-84). Daemen had won their last three overtime games before today, including a 93-90 home win over District of Columbia just nine days ago. It's the first time Daemen has played multiple overtime games in the same season since 2016-17 when they went 0-2 in such contests. 
  • Sischo entered the game just three field goals shy of Skolen's program record. He tied the mark with a jumper at the 14:17 mark of the first half, and later broke it with his 688th career field goal at the 4:44 mark off a feed from Holt.  
  • Sischo ends the regular season as the ECC's scoring champion, averaging 24.2 points per game. He finished just slightly ahead of Molloy's Nick Corbett (24.0 ppg) who went off for 44 points in a loss to Roberts Wesleyan College today. Now with 703 total points this season, Sischo is just the second player in team history to reach the 700-point threshold, and he moved into third place on the ECC's single season points list. He trails only STAC's Justin Reyes (710 points in 2017-18) and New York Tech's Darian Hooker (736 points in 2014-15) for the conference record. He stands 64 points shy of Daemen's all-time mark of 767 set by Rob Robinson in 1990-91. 
  • Sischo's 20 double-doubles brings him into a tie with Sekou Sylla from the College of St. Rose for the national lead among Division II players. He's now totaled 45 double-doubles in 87 career games. 
  • Sischo went for 15+ rebounds for the fifth time this season, and the first time since grabbing 20 boards against University of the Sciences on November 30. His 330 rebounds this season are the most for a Daemen player since Gerald Beverly grabbed 373 during the 2014-15 season. Sischo ranks fourth in Daemen history for single season rebounds and career rebounds (874). 
  • 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.
  • Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.) finished without a three-point field goal for just the third time this season and the fifth time in his last 64 games  He remains the ECC leader 97 three-pointers this season (second in team history, tied for fifth in ECC history). Daemen's career leader with 313 three-pointers, Redband remains 21 shy of the ECC's all-time mark (334) held by Mike Kuhnes of Queens. 
  • Harris continues to close in on 1,000 points. He's now totaled 989 points in 96 games played. His six steals today were a season-high as he ran his career total to 182. He stands three steals shy of tying Casey Sheehan and Therreon Blackwell for second in program history. 
  • Wallace leads Daemen and ranks fourth in the ECC with 108 assists this season. He's the first Daemen player with 100+ assists in a season since 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. He's averaging 15.5 points, 8.1 rebounds and 5.0 assists over the last 13 games. Today's result was just Daemen's third loss in the 19 games that he's recorded at least three assists. It also marked his third 20-point game of the season. 

NEXT JUMP BALL
Third-seeded Daemen hosts sixth-seeded Queens in the first round of the ECC Championship tournament this Wednesday, March 4. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Lumsden Gymnasium with the winner advancing to face second-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas in Saturday's (March 7) semifinal at the UDC Sports Complex.
 
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