GAME #32 - EAST COAST CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINAL
(#3 SEED) DAEMEN WILDCATS (24-7, 12-4 ECC) vs. (#2 SEED) ST. THOMAS AQUINAS SPARTANS (23-5, 13-3 ECC)
SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2020
UDC SPORTS COMPLEX (WASHINGTON, D.C.) - 7:30 PM

TICKETS
$10 - general admission
$5 - students with ID, senior citizens, children ages 5-12

FASTBREAK POINTS: 10 THINGS TO KNOW
1. The ECC Championship tournament shifts to our nation's capital for Saturday's semifinal games. The nightcap features third-seeded Daemen taking on second-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas for the right to advance to Sunday's tournament final.

2. Daemen is making its fifth-straight ECC tournament appearance. The Wildcats advanced to the semifinal round following a 90-76 win Wednesday night over sixth-seeded Queens. It marks the fifth-straight season that Daemen has advanced to the semifinal round. They are seeking their first tournament final appearance since 2016 – the last time the tournament was held at the UDC Sports Complex.

3. Andrew Sischo erupted for a career-high 47 points in Wednesday's opening round game. The 6-foot-9 redshirt junior became the first Daemen player to hit the 40-point mark since Gerald Beverly in 2014 and broke a 29-year old program record for single-game scoring, eclipsing the previous mark of 44 set by Rob Robinson during the 1990-91 season. Sischo shot 19-for-29 from the field, also breaking Daemen's single-game record for made field goals. For good measure, he added 15 rebounds to notch his NCAA Division II-leading 21st double-double of the season, and he brought his season point total to 750, surpassing the ECC single-season record held by Darian Hooker of New York Tech.

4. Daemen and St. Thomas Aquinas split their two regular season meetings with the home team winning each game. STAC struck first with an 87-80 win at Aquinas Hall, snapping Daemen's 11-game winning streak. The Wildcats bounced back with an 81-77 win at Lumsden Gymnasium on Valentine's Day in a game that was broadcast as part of the NCAA Division II Showcase.     

5. The Wildcats and Spartans will be meeting in conference tournament action for the fourth time in the last five seasons. STAC knocked Daemen out of the tourney in three-straight seasons, including the 2016 final which gave the Spartans their first ECC championship.  

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS SCOUTING REPORT

• St. Thomas Aquinas is led by veteran head coach Tobin Anderson who has developed the Spartans into one of the premier programs in the East Coast Conference and the NCAA Division II East Region.
• Now in his seventh season at STAC, Anderson has led the program to a 165-55 overall record, three ECC tournament titles and four NCAA tournament berths. The Spartans have finished either first or second in the ECC standings in six-straight seasons.
• The Spartans return 10 players from their 2018-19 team, including four who started at least 14 games.
• Osbel Caraballo (1st team), Demetre Roberts (2nd team) and Sekou Cisse (3rd team) all return after earning All-ECC honors last winter. All three are producing again, making STAC the only team to boast three of the ECC's top 13 scorers.  
• Caraballo leads the team in scoring (16.8 ppg) and ranks second among the ECC leaders in field goal percentage (.578). Roberts is scoring 15.2 points per game and shooting nearly 44% from three-point range. Cisse is getting 14.5 points per game and leads the team in rebounding (8.3 rpg).
• The Spartans get additional production from Grant Singleton (10.6 ppg, 2.1 spg) and Louis Griffith (8.4 ppg, 38% 3PT). Singleton has really come on of late, scoring 10+ points in nine of the last 10 games.
• STAC is presently ranked in both Division II national polls (NABC #18, D2SIDA #18).
• The Spartans have won 13 of their last 16 games with their only setbacks coming at Daemen and twice against Bridgeport.
• The Spartans are 14-2 in games away from home this season.

SERIES HISTORY VS. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
All-Time Series: STAC 15-6
At Neutral Site: STAC 3-0
Current Streak: Daemen won 1
Last Meeting: Daemen 81, STAC 77 | Feb, 14, 2020 | at Amherst, N.Y.

RETURN OF THE MAC
Mike MacDonald returns to the bench for his sixth season as Daemen's head coach, and his 23rd overall as a collegiate head coach. Since beginning to roam the Daemen sidelines, MacDonald has led the Wildcats to a 129-50 overall record. The Wildcats have won at least 19 games in each of MacDonald's first five seasons, and the team's 105 victories in that span are the second most among all NCAA Division II programs in New York State, as well as all East Coast Conference teams. He recorded the 100th win of his Daemen tenure Feb. 10, 2019 against Queens, placing him in an elite fraternity of coaches that have achieved at least 100 wins in each of the NCAA's three divisions. He went on to be named the East Coast Conference, NABC District and Basketball Coaches Association of New York Division II Coach of the Year following the 2018-19 season. Before coming to Daemen, MacDonald transformed the Division III program at Medaille into a perennial powerhouse, averaging 18 wins per season and advancing to the postseason six times in his eight years as head coach. MacDonald made his head coaching debut at the Division I level, leading the program at Canisius from 1997-2006. While there, MacDonald's teams racked up 108 wins making him the third all-time winningest coach in the program's history. The longtime bench boss holds a career record of 386-276.

WHAT A RIDE
The 2018-19 season was one for the record books at Daemen as the Wildcats captured their second East Coast Conference regular season title, sat atop the regional rankings for much of the campaign, ascended into the top-25 national polls for the first time as an NCAA Division II member and garnered the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. The Wildcats rattled off wins in 11 of their first 12 games, including a 78-72 defeat of previously unbeaten St. Anselm who came into the Jan. 2 contest ranked No. 4 in both Division II national polls. Daemen embarked on a 10-game winning streak beginning in mid-January, a stretch that vaulted them to the top of the regional poll and as high as No. 10 (D2SIDA) and No. 13 (NABC) in the top-25 national polls. It marked the Wildcats' longest winning streak since the 2013-14 season when they won 14 consecutive games. The Wildcats wrapped up the ECC regular season title with a 93-71 defeat of Bridgeport on March 3. They entered the ECC Championship tournament as the No. 1 seed, but were upset by fourth-seeded Bridgeport in game played at UB's Hubbell Gymnasium. Despite the conference tournament loss, Daemen was awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, earning the No. 5 seed to the East Region Championship. They made their NCAA tourney debut March 16, but saw their season come to an end with a 72-67 loss to fourth-seeded New Haven. The team's 24 wins this season were the most since their transition to NCAA Division II.

BECOMING THE NORM
Daemen's 81-77 win over St. Thomas Aquinas on Feb. 14 was their 20th of the season. It marks Daemen's seventh 20-win campaign in the last nine seasons. Daemen has not won less than 19 games in a season since the 2010-11 campaign. Finishing the 2018-19 season at 24-6, that marked the program's most in a season since going 27-6 during the 2012-13 campaign, a year before the Wildcats began play as members of the East Coast Conference. 

GOING STREAKING
Daemen has embarked on four winning streaks of at least nine games since the start of the 2018-19 season. Most recently, the Wildcats put together an 11-game winning streak, covering games played Nov. 2 through Dec. 13. The streak came to an end Dec. 15 following a seven-point loss to arch-nemesis St. Thomas Aquinas. The recent streak ranks as the longest of Daemen's NCAA Division II era (2015-present), and it also ranked as the longest streak in Division II and the second-longest across all NCAA divisions at the time it was broken.

DEFENDING THE DEN
Daemen is 15-1 at home this season, equaling the program record for home wins which was just set last season. It's the eighth time in the last nine seasons that Daemen has won 10+ home contests. The Wildcats have won 37 of their last 40 home games dating back to the 2017-18 season. They recently had a 17-game home winning streak - their longest since winning 44-straight from 2011-15. The recent streak was the fifth-longest home winning streak in Division II when it was snapped Jan. 12 vs. Bridgeport. Daemen is also unbeaten in 16 straight non-conference home games. Since joining the ECC (2013-14 season), Daemen is 55-10 in home conference games (.846 winning percentage). Since the start of the 2011-12 season, Daemen is 112-15 at home (.882 winning percentage). Of those 15 losses, seven have been decided by three points or fewer, including three by just a single point.

NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
For the first time as a member of NCAA Division II, Daemen opened the season as a nationally-ranked team. The Wildcats were ranked in both preseason national polls for Division II (NABC poll No. 22; D2SIDA poll No. 18), and have since risen as high as No. 8 in the NABC and D2SIDA polls, marking their highest ascent in both. Daemen had been ranked in 14 successive NABC polls, and 15 out of the 16 D2SIDA polls dating back to last January, before falling out of the national rankings in early January of 2020.

NCAA REGIONAL RANKINGS
Daemen is No. 7 in the official East Region rankings released this week by the NCAA Regional Advisory Committee. The NCAA publishes rankings for all eight regions in the three weeks leading up to the NCAA tournament selection show. This week's poll includes:

1. Bridgeport
2. St. Thomas Aquinas
3. Jefferson
4. St. Anselm
5. Le Moyne
6. Stonehill
7. DAEMEN
8. Dominican
9. Franklin Pierce
10. Pace

GREAT ECC-XPECTATIONS
For the first time since joining the East Coast Conference, the league's coaches have predicted a first-place finish for Daemen. The Wildcats sit atop the 2019-20 ECC preseason poll which was released in late October. Daemen amassed 80 total points in the poll, grabbing eight of nine first-place votes. St. Thomas Aquinas College picked up the remaining first-place vote, finishing with 72 points in the poll to sit at No. 2. The University of Bridgeport (64 points) and defending ECC tournament champion Molloy College (53 points) round out the top four teams. Daemen holds a 99-31 all-time record in ECC contests dating back to the 2013-14 season. Only St. Thomas Aquinas (103-27) holds more wins in ECC games during that time frame. The Wildcats have finished third or better in all six seasons since joining the league. 

TUNE-UPS
In preparation for the 2019-20 regular season, Daemen played a trio of exhibition contests, including two against highly-touted Division I programs Buffalo and Syracuse. Despite having just seven days of practice under their belt, Daemen opened the brief exhibition season with a 111-73 loss against a Buffalo team that spent the majority of the 2018-19 season ranked among the top-25 teams in the country, finishing the year with a 32-4 overall record and a trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Less than 48 hours later the Wildcats made their first-ever appearance at the iconic Carrier Dome on the campus of SU, falling to the Orange and legendary head coach Jim Boeheim 90-71. It left as a decent a feeling as one can have following a 19-point defeat at the Wildcats played SU even (43-43) over the final 20 minutes. The exhibition slate wrapped up on Oct. 29 with Daemen blasting Mohawk (116-54) out of the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association. Andrew Sischo led the Wildcats by averaging 18.3 points and 10.3 rebounds over the three contests. He put up 28 points and 12 rebounds against Buffalo, numbers that no player has achieved against the Bulls in the last three seasons, and followed up with another double-double (15 points, 12 rebounds) at Syracuse. Breon Harris netted a team-high 23 points at the Carrier Dome, and finished the exhibition slate averaging 10.7 points per game. Newcomer Joey Wallace also made his presence felt, averaging 10.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. 

SMALL COLLEGE BASKETBALL NATIONAL HALL OF FAME CLASSIC
Daemen opened the 2019-20 season in prestigious fashion as they were selected to take part in the Small College Basketball National Hall of Fame Classic held at the St. Joseph (Mo.) Civic Arena. In a battle of nationally-ranked teams, Daemen fell 85-65 in their season opener against No. 1 Northwest Missouri State. The Bearcats, who have won two of the last three national titles, extended their winning streak to 39 games, despite being outscored (55-54) over the middle 30 minutes of the contest. Daemen's Andrew Sischo impressed against the highly-touted Bearcats as he recorded the 26th double-double of his career, finishing with 24 points and 15 rebounds. The Wildcats regrouped for a come-from-behind win the following night against Missouri Western State, the quasi-tournament host playing less than 10 miles from their campus. A game-closing 15-6 run over the final 5:29 lifted the Wildcats past the Griffons. Newcomer Kyle Harris netted the go-ahead bucket at the 1:41 mark, part of his 11-point outing off the bench. 

ECC-CACC CHALLENGE DOMINANCE
Daemen continued its winning ways at the ECC-CACC Challenge, earning home victories over Felician (95-80) on Nov. 8, and Nyack (80-74) on Nov. 9. Both games featured come-from-behind efforts. The Wildcats erased a 17-point first-half deficit in the win over Felician. After trailing by 11 at halftime, Daemen erupted for 56 second-half points, outscoring the Golden Falcons by 26 in the period. Andrew Sischo (31 points, 19 rebounds) scored 22 second-half points to lead the surge. Sischo was at it again vs. Nyack, finishing with 34 points and 17 boards en route to tournament MVP honors. The Wildcats led for most of the game, but found themselves trailing by three late in the second half. An old-fashioned three-point play by Sischo sparked a decisive 11-2 run down the stretch that included back-to-back trifectas by Jay Sarkis. Sischo, an ECC-CACC Challenge all-tournament team selection for the third straight year, was joined on the all-tournament team by Sarkis and senior guard Breon Harris who collected his first career double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds) in the win over Nyack. 

HURST CURSE DASHED
Daemen exorcised some demons with a 67-65 defeat of Mercyhurst on Nov. 14. It marked the Wildcats' first win over Lakers since 2013, and just their second in the series overall. Andrew Sischo produced a double-double (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Joey Wallace put up 18 points, five boards, three assists and two steals to lead the way. The Wildcats and Lakers have met in seven successive seasons with five of those contests being decided by six points or less. 

TOPPLING THE TOPPERS
Daemen posted a wire-to-wire 98-83 win over nationally-ranked West Liberty on Nov. 16. The Hilltoppers came into the game ranked in the top-five of both national polls for Division II (No. 4 NABC; No. 3 D2SIDA), and have routinely been among the nation's highest scoring teams, including in 2018-19 when they ranked first in scoring (100.9 ppg). The Hilltoppers came in averaging 130.5 points per game following two lopsided wins over Mansfield and Shaw, but Daemen was the aggressor from the get-go and built an 18-point advantage late in the first half. West Liberty would cut the deficit to seven points several times in the second half, but Daemen charged back and eventually cruised to the 15-point win. Andrew Sischo was dominant inside (29 points on 12-of-13 shooting, 18 rebounds), and the Wildcats got additional scoring from Joey Wallace (19 points), Breon Harris (17), Kyle Harris (11) and Jeff Redband (10). 

DOWNTOWN DEBUT
Daemen's first-ever game at KeyBank Center in downtown Buffalo was a successful one on Nov. 23 as the Wildcats rallied for an 83-81 win over upset-minded Wilmington. After opening up an early nine-point lead, the tables turned and Daemen trailed by as many as seven points in the second half. Wilmington led for more than 22 minutes in the game, but a deep three-pointer by Breon Harris with 32 seconds remaining put Daemen ahead. Harris came up with a steal on Wilmington's final possession to help seal the deal. He finished with a season-high 21 points, and Andrew Sischo tossed in 24 points and eight rebounds as well. Joey Wallace keyed the comeback by shooting 10-for-11 from the free throw line in the second half. The game was played as a part of a doubleheader with Big 4 rivals Canisius and St. Bonaventure taking the floor afterwards. It marked the first doubleheader at Buffalo's largest indoor sporting venue invovling local teams since 2015. The 19,000-seat arena has been the site of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament six times since its opening in 1996. 

YOU CAN COME HOME AGAIN
Daemen's game at KeyBank Center was a return 14 years in the making for Daemen head coach Mike MacDonald. The longtime bench boss coached in more than 40 games at the downtown arena from 1996-2005 while working at Canisius (including stints as an assistant and head coach). It marked his first game coached in the building since a 79-59 loss to Rider in the 2005 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament (Mar. 5, 2005). MacDonald is the all-time leader for coaching wins at KeyBank Center. The Daemen win there over Wilmington extended his career record to 18-11 in the building, and was his first victory there since a 62-60 triumph over Marist on March 4, 2005.   

COMEBACK KIDS
Daemen is quickly developing a reputation as a team that won't be buried. Nine of their wins this season have featured second-half comebacks. Here is a summary of deficits overcome this season:
vs. Missouri Western: 10 points (1st half); 5 points (under 7 minutes to play)
vs. Felician: 17 points (1st half); 11 points (halftime)
vs. Nyack: 3 points (under 3 minutes to play)
vs. Mercyhurst: 8 points (under 10 minutes to play)
vs. Le Moyne: 9 points (under 6 minutes to play)
vs. Wilmington: 7 points (under 8 minutes to play)
at Dist. Columbia: 11 points (under 8 minutes to play)
vs. St. Thomas Aquinas: 1 point (under 1:30 to play)
vs. Dist. Columbia: 4 points (under 1:10 to play)

REPRESSING THE REDHAWKS
Daemen has won 19-straight (and 26 of the last 27) meetings with Roberts Wesleyan. It ranks as Daemen's longest active winning streak against any single opponent, and one of three that have reached double figures (also 14-straight vs. Mercy, 16-straight vs. Houghton). Eleven of the last 19 meetings have been decided by nine points or fewer. The closest margin was a 98-96 final on Jan. 12, 2016 when Daemen erased a 22-point deficit with just over six minutes to play, riding the strong play of Rochester native Torrence Dyck who finished with a career-high 35 points. The streak also includes one overtime game, a 77-72 final on Nov. 26, 2013 which was Daemen's first-ever ECC victory. 

TOURNAMENT TESTED
Daemen has now played games against six teams that advanced to the NCAA tournament last season: St. Anselm, St. Thomas Aquinas, Le Moyne, West Liberty, Mercyhurst, and Northwest Missouri State. Of those teams, five reached at least the Sweet 16, three won their regional championships and advanced to the Elite 8, two went to the Final 4, and of course NMSU completed a perfect season by winning the national title. The Wildcats are 4-3 against NCAA tournament teams so far this season, earning wins over defending Atlantic Region champion Mercyhurst, Atlantic Region finalist West Liberty, Le Moyne and St. Thomas Aquinas. Losses have come against defending national champion Northwest Missouri State, East Region finalist St. Thomas Aquinas and defending East Region champion St. Anselm.

GETTING DEFENSIVE
Daemen is allowing 74.5 points per game this season, second-best among all ECC teams. They've held 10 opponents to less than 70 points, posting a 9-1 record in those contests. Daemen had won 16-straight games when allowing less than 70 points before a 67-64 setback against Bridgeport on Jan. 12. Since the start of the 2014-15 season, Daemen is 55-7 when allowing less than 70 points. Daemen is also surrendering just 43.9% shooting to opponents and blocking 3.4 shots per game this season, both top-five in the ECC. They also rank third in the league with a +4.2 rebounding margin per game. The clamps have really come on of late with Daemen allowing just 66.3 points over a six-game span (Jan. 10-Feb. 1) on 41.3% shooting overall and 27.1% shooting from three-point range.

LET IT FLY
Three-point shooting has been a big part of Daemen's arsenal this season. The Wildcats lead the ECC in total three-point field goals (301), three-pointers made per game (9.7) and three-point field goal percentage (.388). Daemen has made at least 10 threes in 16 games this season, including eight in a row from Jan. 24 to Feb. 21 – their longest streak of the season. The Wildcats made a season-high with 16 three-pointers in a home win over Mercy on Feb. 16 and averaged 12.5 three-pointers made and shot 45% from downtown over that eight-game span.

MAN IN THE MIDDLE
Redshirt junior center Andrew Sischo headlines Daemen's returning players after earning East Coast Conference and Division II Conference Commissioner's Association East Region Player of the Year honors in 2018-19. A two-time first-team All-ECC selection, Sischo has been downright dominant in his career for the Wildcats. He has set new team benchmarks for points scored by a freshman (462) and sophomore (585), and also became just the sixth player in team history to average a double-double (20.9 ppg, 10.1 rpg) for an entire season. In late October he was named the ECC Preseason Player of the Year for the second straight season. Through 30 games this year, Sischo is averaging monster numbers (25.0 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 1.2 bpg, 64.2% FG). He's posted 23 games of 20+ points and has topped 30 points six times, including a record 47-point outburst in the opening round of the ECC Championship tournament. He finished the regular season as the ECC's scoring champion and ranks first in double-doubles (21), second in made field goals (289), third in rebounding, seventh in scoring and 10th in field goal percentage among the NCAA Division II national leaders. Already this season, he's been named to the SCB National Hall of Fame Classic all-tournament team, MVP of the ECC-CACC Challenge, a two-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week, a five-time ECC Player of the Week and a two-time U.S. Basketball Writers Association Men's Division II National Player of the Week.

DOUBLE-DOUBLE YOUR DELIGHTMENT
Andrew Sischo has been a double-double machine this season, racking up 21 of them through his first 30 games, a total that places him in the national lead among Division II players. He opened the season with seven consecutive double-doubles, and has five this season that include 30-point outputs. Sischo, who ranked sixth nationally with 17 double-doubles last season, has totaled 46 double-doubles in 88 career games - the most for a Daemen player since Gerald Beverly totaled 46 in his career spanning 2011-15. 

CLIMBING THE LADDER
With each passing game, Andrew Sischo continues to climb among Daemen's all-time statistical leaders. In 88 career games, Sischo has totaled 1,797 points and 889 rebounds. He stands as one of only three players in program history with at least 1,600 points and 800 rebounds. He ranks sixth all-time in scoring, fourth in career rebounding, first in made field goals (713) and seventh in blocked shots (88).

AMONG THE BEST
Andrew Sischo has been named to the Bevo Francis Award Top 50 Watch List by Small College Basketball, a national organization which highlights the accomplishments of non-NCAA Division I basketball teams and student-athletes. The Bevo Francis Award is named for the former basketball star at Rio Grande College who averaged 50.1 points per game during the 1952-53 season. It is awarded to the player who is deemed to have had the finest season within Small College Basketball, which consists of NCAA Divisions II and III as well as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) and National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA).

SEEING RED-BAND
Over the course of his career, forward Jeff Redband has established himself as one of Daemen's all-time great players. A two-time All-ECC pick, including a second-team selection last season, Redband has appeared in all 119 games since the start of the 2016-17 season, making 116 starts and helping Daemen to a 90-29 record. He is one of only three players in team history with 1,300 points, 500 rebounds and 90 blocked shots. He has produced 13 games of 20+ points in his career, including six this season as he's averaged 12.9 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game.

BOMBS AWAY
In Daemen's win at Roberts Wesleyan on Feb. 1, Jeff Redband became the program's all-time leader in three-point field goals, breaking Brian Montanaro's record of 288. Redband, now with 314 three-pointers in his career, is the first Daemen player with 60 or more three-pointers in four-straight seasons since Montanaro did so 2002-06. He has made at least one three-pointer in 60 of the last 65 games, and has made five or more 22 times in his career. He leads the team and ECC with 98 three-pointers this season, a total that also ranks 12th nationally. He's hitting shots at an efficient clip as Redband also ranks first in the ECC and 17th nationally in three-point shooting percentage (.453). Redband stands third all-time in ECC history for career three-pointers, 20 shy of record-holder Mike Kuhens of Queens. 

BREAKOUT BREON
Senior guard Breon Harris was inserted into the starting lineup midway through the 2017-18 season, and has gone on to help Daemen win 65 of their 80 games since then. He's been a third-team All-ECC selection in each of the last two seasons, and has also earned ECC Championships all-tournament team honors twice in his career. Harris swiped 70 steals as a sophomore, the third-highest single-season total in team history and making him the first player with at least 70 since Russell John totaled 73 in 1990-91. He added 53 steals last season and 56 steals this season making him the first player in team history to post 50+ steals in three-straight seasons. He was named to the ECC-CACC Challenge all-tournament team for the second-straight year, helping Daemen to wins over Felician and Nyack. Those contributions included the first double- double of his career, as he totaled 11 points and a career-high 11 boards vs. Nyack. He's topped 20 points four times this season, including Nov. 23 vs. Wilmington when he hit the go-ahead three-pointer with just over 30 seconds remaining. He's producing 12.9 points per game this season and was named the ECC Defensive Player of the Week for Feb. 25-Mar. 1. Harris, who recently became just the ninth player in team history to reach 150 career steals, has totaled 1,001 points, 342 rebounds, 234 assists and 184 steals in 97 career games played. 

SHINING STAR-KIS
Redshirt senior guard Jay Sarkis has been a fixture in the Daemen lineup since arriving on campus in 2015. Sarkis has appeared in 111 of a possible 120 games (excluding a redshirt season in 2016-17), while making 105 starts. He's recorded at least one three-pointer in 92 games, totaling 197 triples in his career (6th in team history). He's just the sixth player in program history with at least 190 three-point field goals. Sarkis contributed 8.2 points and a team-best 3.1 assists per game in 2018-19. His finest season came a year earlier when he put up career-highs in points (372), assists (106) and rebounds (86), and finished the season ranking among the ECC's top-five statistical leaders in minutes (3rd), minutes per game (5th), three-point field goals (4th), three-point shooting percentage (5th) and assists (3rd). Sarkis is the 26th member of Daemen's 1,000 point club, and just the fifth to also have 300 career assists. He has totaled 1,057 points and 334 assists in his career. He recently moved into the top five on Daemen's career assists list. Sarkis is seeing 33.0 minutes per game, and producing 8.6 points and 3.1 assists per outing this season. 

WALK WITH WALLACE
Redshirt senior wing Joey Wallace is the most experienced of Daemen's 10 newcomers this season. The son of former Syracuse star and NBA veteran John Wallace, Joey Wallace came to Daemen with 85 games of Division II experience under his belt across parts of four seasons playing for Southern Connecticut State. The Rochester native contributed 8.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game across his tenure there. He's made an immediate impact here with the Wildcats, starting 29 games and producing 12.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game. He's had 18 games with 10+ points, including 19 vs. nationally-ranked West Liberty on Nov. 16. He's also making his mark at the defensive end, routinely matching up with the opposition's top perimeter player. Wallace has twice been named the ECC Defensive Player of the Week this season. Including his time at Southern Connecticut, Wallace has totaled 1,122 points, 628 rebounds and 392 assists. He scored 21 points, including the 1,000th of his career, in Daemen's win at Roberts Wesleyan on Feb. 1.

FRESH FACES
The Wildcats welcome 10 new players to the fold this season to round out a large 20-player roster. Buffalo natives Donte' Williams and Kyle Harris are proven college players. Williams, a 6'4" guard/forward, has one season of remaining eligibility following previous stops at Southeastern Iowa Community College and California University (Pa.). He averaged 10.7 points and 5.2 rebounds per game for the Vulcans last season. Harris comes over after a prolific junior college career at Erie Community College where he played for head coach Alex Nwora, a Daemen graduate and inductee of the Daemen Hall of Fame. Harris brings a winning pedigree (47-17 record at ECC) and tremendous three-point shooting ability (166 three-pointers in the last two seasons) to the Wildcats. Big man Chris Luke (7'0", Jr., C) gives the Wildcats some depth at the center position. Freshmen Keith Slack and Ryan Salzberg are expected to compete for minutes in the backcourt.

NEXT JUMP BALL
A win Saturday would place Daemen in the ECC Championship finals at 2:30 Sunday afternoon against the winner of Saturday's first semifinal between top-seeded Bridgeport and fourth-seeded Molloy. The tournament finals are being broadcast on ESPN streaming platforms as part of the NCAA Division II Showcase.