AMHERST, N.Y. – It was another milestone afternoon for Daemen center Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) as he teamed with guard Sean Fasoyiro (Houston, Texas) in leading the Wildcats to an 82-51 victory over visiting Mercy today in East Coast Conference men's basketball action at Lumsden Gymnasium.
Sischo, who earlier this month became the program's all-time leading scorer, reached a pair of major milestones in the game. His first bucket of the game, a thunderous fastbreak slam off a feed from Fasoyiro, made Sischo the first 2,000-point scorer for the Wildcats. He later picked up the 1,000th rebound of his career, becoming only the third Daemen player to do so. Sischo is only the second player in East Coast Conference history and the 15th player in the history of the NCAA Division II East Region to record 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
Daemen has now won three straight games, moving their record to 5-3 overall and 5-1 in conference play. Mercy dropped to 1-5 both overall and in the league.
IMPACT PLAYERS
- Fasoyiro shot 8-for-10 from the field and 3-for-5 from three-point range while posting a career-high 23 points. He added six boards and took game-high honors with five assists and three steals.
- Sischo tossed in 15 points and nine boards, and guards Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) and Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) continued their fine play, finishing with 14 points apiece. Mason knocked down four three-pointers and added eight rebounds.
- James Taylor, Jr. (16 points) and Kerwin Prince (15 points, 11 rebounds) paced the Mavericks.
PERIOD-BY-PERIOD SUMMARY
First Half (Daemen 44, Mercy 27) – Sischo got his milestone hoop out of the way early and a quick seven points from Fasoyiro helped Daemen get out to a 9-2 lead, prompting a Mercy timeout just over four minutes into the game. The Daemen run extended however with Kyle Harris (Buffalo, N.Y.) making a layup to put Daemen ahead 16-4. After Mercy got it to a single-digit deficit at 16-7, Daemen embarked on a 15-4 spurt to open up a 31-11 lead. Da'Shawn Hines (Amherst, N.Y.) and Fasoyiro canned back-to-back three-pointers and Mason added another to key the Wildcat run. A three-pointer from Taylor, Jr. pulled Mercy within 39-23, but it was short-lived as Mason drilled another trifecta 22 seconds later, and Daemen took a 17-point lead into the break. Fasoyiro scored 14 points in the period to lead the Wildcats who shot 8-for-18 from downtown.
Second Half (Daemen 38, Mercy 24) – Mercy managed to hang around early in the second, thanks in part to Taylor, Jr. who netted eight points in less than four minutes. His three-pointer at the 16:07 mark brought Mercy within 15, trailing 50-35. From there, Daemen outscored Mercy 27-7 over the next 10 minutes to put the game out of reach. Fasoyiro and Sischo combined for 16 points in the extended run which included a stretch of 10 unanswered points. Fasoyiro's steal and subsequent fastbreak layup at the 5:51 mark put Daemen ahead by 35 points (77-42) and the Wildcats cruised from there.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Daemen was the superior shooting team today, finishing 30-for-58 from the field (51.7%) while Mercy managed just 37.9% shooting (22-for-58).
- Daemen was deadly from long range, shooting 14-for-33 (42.4%). It marks the fifth straight game Daemen has made at least 10 three-pointers as they outscored Mercy 42-15 from behind the arc.
- Daemen also enjoyed another strong rebounding performance, outrebounding Mercy 37-28. The Wildcats entered the game with a per game rebounding margin of +9.0, tops in the ECC and third among all Division II teams.
- Daemen outscored Mercy 22-7 in points off turnovers, capitalizing on 15 Mercy miscues. Many of those resulted in fasbtreak opportunities where the Wildcats had an 18-0 advantage.
HEAD COACH MIKE MACDONALD POSTGAME COMMENTS
GAME NOTES
- Daemen improved to 16-0 all-time against Mercy. The 16 consecutive wins is tied for Daemen's longest active winning streak against any single opponent (Houghton).
- Sischo had a pair of personal streaks snapped today. He entered the game with 10 consecutive double-doubles and 12 consecutive 20-point games. He has now recorded 58 consecutive 10-point games.
- In 96 games, he has totaled 2,014 points and 1,004 rebounds. He joins Alex Nwora (1,103) and Gerald Beverly (1,004) as the only players in program history to reach the 1,000-rebound plateau.
- During the course of today's game, Sischo moved into fourth place in both points and rebounds on the East Coast Conference's all-time lists. He overtook John Petrucelli of Molloy (2,011 points) on the scoring list, and passed John Sullivan (1,000 rebounds) on the rebounding list.
- Fasoyiro's previous career-high came December 8, 2018 when he scored 22 points vs. St. Rose while playing for Franklin Pierce. The graduate transfer has reached double figures in seven of eight games this season and is averaging 15.4 points per game. He is the fourth Daemen player to record a 20-point game this season, joining Sischo, Harris and Mason.
- Salzberg has now scored at least nine points in five straight games, totaling 61 points (12.2 ppg) in that span. He had totaled 35 points in the first 26 games of his career.
- Mason has scored in double figures in each of Daemen's three recent wins, averaging 18.0 points and shooting 12-for-23 from three-point range (52.1%) in that span.
- Already playing with a thinned roster due to eight COVID-19 opt-outs, Daemen was without freshman guard Juston Johnson (Buffalo, N.Y.), who had started the first six games, and freshman forward Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) who each missed the game with injuries.
- Daemen is coming off back-to-back 24-win seasons that resulted in NCAA tournament berths. Daemen's 89 wins from 2016-17 through 2019-20 represents the most successful four-year span in program history. The Wildcats were hit hard by graduation, losing four of their five starters, all of whom were 1,000-point scorers.
NEXT JUMP BALL
Daemen closes the home portion of their shortened regular season Wednesday (Feb. 24) when they welcome D'Youville to Lumsden Gymnasium.
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