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Women's Basketball 2019-20 Season Review

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QUICK HITS

  • The Wildcats enjoyed a historic season before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the postseason.
  • The Wildcats went 23-5 overall, setting a new benchmark for wins in the program's NCAA Division II era; it was the 16th 20-win season in program history, and the first since 2012-13.
  • Daemen posted a 13-3 record in ECC play, sharing the regular season championship with St. Thomas Aquinas.
  • The Wildcats went on to win the ECC tournament for the first time, defeating NY Tech in the semifinals and Molloy, in a game broadcast on ESPN3, in the finals.
  • Daemen was awarded the number seven seed in the NCAA East Regional, but the tournament was cancelled just one day prior to its start. 
SCHEDULE / RESULTS
ROSTER
STATISTICS
ECC STANDINGS
WBB 19-20 BY THE NUMBERS

JENEPHER BANKER // HEAD WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COACH

  • Jenepher Banker was named the fourth head coach in the modern history (1986-present) of the Daemen women's basketball program on April 14, 2016.
  • Banker has compiled a record of 64-47 since taking the reins, ranking her second among the program's all-time leaders in coaching victories.
  • Banker has led the Wildcats to top-two finishes in the ECC in each of the last two seasons, including a regular season co-championship in 2019-20.
  • Banker also presided over the team's first-ever ECC tournament championship and subsequent NCAA tournament berth in 2019-20.
  • Under Banker's direction, the Wildcats are 37-7 in their last 44 games dating back to January of 2019.

 

PRESEASON

October 15 represents the official starting date for NCAA Division II women's basketball team practices. Here are three things you need to know about the Daemen Wildcats this season...

1. The Wildcats are coming off the program's best season since transitioning to the East Coast Conference and NCAA Division II. They finished the 2018-19 campaign with an 18-10 overall record, recording the most victories since going 26-7 during the 2012-13 season. The team's success included win in 13 of their final 14 regular season games as they finished second in the ECC standings with a 15-3 record - their most-ever ECC wins and their highest-ever ECC finish. Several players return to the fold this season, including All-ECC honorees Katie Titus and Tiara Filbert. Titus, a 6-foot forward, took the league by storm and keyed the Wildcats' late season run. She led the team in scoring (12.1 ppg), rebounding (7.2 rpg), three-pointers (42), field goals (133) and blocked shots (38) en route to earning ECC Rookie of the Year honors. Filbert was solid throughout, averaging 12.0 points per game while registering a team-high 76 assists. 

2. Head coach Jenepher Banker and staff hit the recruiting trail hard and they'll welcome 10 newcomers to the roster. That group is headlined by graduate transfer Ashli Jeune, a 5-foot-10 guard. Jeune is expected to make an immediate impact as she's contributed to two Division I programs before making her way to the Wildcats. She earned three varsity letters at Rutgers, playing in 21 games as a redshirt-freshman (2015-16). She later transferred to UNC-Wilmington where, after sitting out the 2017-18 season due to NCAA transfer rules, she appeared in 29 games while making six starts last season. Jeune averaged 2.5 points and 1.6 rebounds per contest while helping the Seahawks to an 18-12 record. 

3. The Wildcats open the season with seven of their first eight contests being played away from Lumsden Gymnasium. They'll be part of back-to-back tournaments hosted by Roberts Wesleyan at the season's outset, beginning Nov. 8-9 when they face Stonehill and Franklin Pierce at the Redhawks Tip-Off Classic. The Wildcats make their home debut on Wednesday, Nov. 20 when they entertain visiting Edinboro. For the second straight season a Thanksgiving weekend trip to Florida is in the cards as the Wildcats partake in the Cedar Odio Thanksgiving Classic hosted by Barry on Nov. 29-30. Conference play gets underway Saturday, Dec. 7 with the Wildcats hosting rival Roberts Wesleyan. 

WBB TEAM 19-20

FAST START 

THANKSGIVING AT THE BEACH

ON A ROLL

FEB. 1 - WILDCATS RIDE STRONG MIDDLE QUARTERS TO EIGHTH-STRAIGHT WIN

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Graduate student Ashli Jeune (Westampton, N.J.) was as hot as a summer afternoon, canning six first-half three-pointers en route to her third 20-point outing this season to lead Daemen College past rival Roberts Wesleyan College by an 80-48 final in East Coast Conference women's basketball action here today. FULL RECAP

FEB. 16 - WILDCATS NOTCH 20TH WIN FOLLOWING 79-60 VICTORY OVER MAVERICKS

AMHERST, N.Y. - Redshirt junior Tiara Filbert (Batavia, N.Y.) scored 20 points and senior Jordan Heinold (Hamburg, N.Y.) added 19 points to lead regionally-ranked Daemen College to a 79-60 victory over Mercy College here today in East Coast Conference women's basketball action. Daemen notched its 20th victory of the season and improved to 20-3 overall and 12-1 in the ECC. The Wildcats remain in first place in the ECC standings with three regular-season games to play. Mercy dropped to 7-17 overall and 1-12 in the league. FULL RECAP

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FEB. 19 - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL IS NO. 5 IN NCAA EAST REGION RANKINGS

AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen College is the No. 5 team in the official NCAA Division II East Region rankings for women's basketball which were released this afternoon. It marks the first of three polls that will be released by the Regional Advisory Committee leading up to the NCAA Championships Selection Show on Sunday, March 8. The No. 5 ranking represents the highest-ever ascent for Daemen which has now been included in four-straight NCAA regional polls dating back to last season. FULL RELEASE

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Jordan Heinold and Ashli Jeune played the final home game of their careers on Feb. 21, and were honored in a pre-game ceremony

FEB. 26 - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL RANKED 6TH IN NCAA EAST REGION

AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen College is the No. 6 team in the official NCAA Division II East Region rankings for women's basketball which were released this afternoon. It marks the second of three polls that will be released by the Regional Advisory Committee leading up to the NCAA Championships Selection Show on Sunday, March 8. Daemen has now been included in five-straight NCAA regional polls dating back to last season, including a No. 5 ranking last week. FULL RELEASE

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WBB ECC CO-REGULAR SEASON CHAMPS 2020
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MAR. 4 - WOMEN'S BASKETBALL RANKED 9TH IN NCAA EAST REGION

AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen College is the No. 9 team in the official NCAA Division II East Region rankings for women's basketball which were released this afternoon. It marks the last of three polls that will be released by the Regional Advisory Committee leading up to the NCAA Championships Selection Show on Sunday, March 8. Daemen has now been included in six-straight NCAA regional polls dating back to last season, including a best-ever No. 5 ranking two weeks ago. FULL RELEASE

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Tiara Filbert (Batavia, N.Y.), Caroline White (Fairport, N.Y.), Katie Titus (Penfield, N.Y.) and Jordan Heinold (Hamburg, N.Y.) earned All-East Coast Conference honors for the 2019-20 season. Filbert and White were both first-team selections. Titus was a second-team honoree, while Heinold earned a spot on the third team. The announcement of All-ECC teams was made at the ECC Men's and Women's Basketball Championships banquet on the campus of the University of the District of Columbia.

TOURNEY TIME

MAR. 7 - WILDCATS TAME BEARS, ADVANCE TO ECC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Redshirt junior Tiara Filbert (Batavia, N.Y.) scored 20 points and sophomore Katie Titus (Penfield, N.Y.) registered her team-leading seventh double-double of the season to lead second-seeded Daemen College to a 76-56 victory over third-seeded New York Tech here today in semifinal round action of the 2020 East Coast Conference Women's Basketball Championship. FULL RECAP

MAR. 8 - CHAMPIONSHIP CALIBER: WILDCATS CLAIM ECC TOURNAMENT TITLE WITH 68-56 WIN OVER MOLLOY

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The historic season for the Daemen College women's basketball team will continue for at least another week.

The Wildcats claimed their first-ever East Coast Conference tournament title and earned the league's automatic bid to the 64-team National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II Championship following a gutsy 68-56 victory over Molloy College here today in the championship game of the 2020 ECC Tournament. Daemen will be making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since the Wildcats first became eligible in 2016. FULL RECAP

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We always talk about staying focused and staying in our box. Don't listen to the outside noise and don't get flustered. They did that today.
Head Coach Jenepher Banker

ECC CHAMPION WILDCATS HEADED TO FIRST-EVER NCAA TOURNEY

AMHERST, N.Y. - Fresh off the program's first-ever East Coast Conference tournament championship, Daemen College is dancing into the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championship which gets underway later this week with regional tournaments across the country. The full 64-team NCAA tournament bracket was announced late this evening in a selection show broadcast on NCAA.com

The tournament field is broken down into eight regions, consisting of eight teams each. Daemen is one of 24 conference champions to earn an automatic qualifying bid to the tournament. The Division II Women's Basketball Committee selects the remaining 40 at-large bids.

Daemen is the No. 7 seed in the East Region, and the Wildcats will make their NCAA tournament debut by meeting second-seeded Stonehill College in a first-round game this Friday, March 13 at the Center for Recreation and Sport on the campus of Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y. Adelphi was awarded the region's No. 1 seed and host privileges for the entire regional tournament. The top-seeded Panthers will meet eighth-seeded Jefferson University, which captured the Central Atlantic Athletic Conference championship earlier today. Additional first-round matchups include No. 4 University of the Sciences taking on fifth-seeded and ECC runner-up Molloy College and an all-Northeast-10 Conference matchup with No. 3 St. Anselm College meeting No. 6 Le Moyne College. 

Game times, ticket and broadcast information for the East Region Championship will be announced later this week.

Daemen will enter NCAA tournament play with a 23-5 record. After capturing a share of their first ECC regular-season title with a 13-3 conference mark, the Wildcats went on to win the ECC tournament crown in our nation's capital this weekend. Daemen downed third-seeded New York Tech 76-56 in the semifinals, snapping the Bears' nine-game winning streak. In Sunday's tournament final, they broke the eight-game winning streak of fourth-seeded Molloy College with a 68-56 triumph. The Wildcats have won 15 of their last 17 games, and are in the midst of the program's first 20-win season since gaining full NCAA Division II membership prior to the 2015-16 academic year. 

Stonehill will enter the NCAA tournament with a matching 23-5 record. The Skyhawks knocked off St. Anselm earlier today to win their sixth NE-10 tournament crown. The Wildcats and Skyhawks met in the 2019-20 season opener, a game won 77-70 by the latter. It's one of just four losses to East Region opponents for the Wildcats this season. The Daemen-Stonehill winner advances to Saturday's regional semifinals to face either St. Anselm or Le Moyne. A full opening-round preview will be posted to daemenwildcats.com later this week. 

Winners of the eight regional tournaments will advance to the Elite Eight which is slated for March 24-27 at the Birmingham (Ala.) CrossPlex. 

UNPRECEDENTED TIMES

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MAR. 12 - NCAA CANCELS ALL REMAINING WINTER & SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Indianapolis, Ind. - Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men's and women's 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships. This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, the ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities.

The announcement today includes the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Basketball East Region Championships which Daemen College teams had qualified to compete in this weekend in Garden City, N.Y. (women) and Bridgeport, Conn. (men). 

For further information as it develops, please continue to check in on daemenwildcats.com

MARCH 12 STATEMENT
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