BUFFALO, N.Y. - Redshirt senior Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) paced a balanced attack with 36 points to lead Daemen College to a 92-76 victory over D'Youville College today at College Center Gymnasium on the D'Youville Campus.

Daemen has now won five of its last six games and improved to 8-6 overall and remained atop the East Coast Conference standings with a perfect 5-0 conference mark. D'Youville (1-12, 0-5 ECC) is competing as an ECC member for the second season as the Saints continue to transition from NCAA Division III to Division II.

Sischo scored 10 of Daemen's first 12 points as the Wildcats built an early 12-6 lead. A conventional three-point play by Sischo later gave the Wildcats a 21-10 lead, but D'Youville scored the next five points and made it a six point game, 21-15, after Mason Putnam scored with 11:42 left before halftime. The Daemen lead was eight points, 34-26, with just over seven minutes left in the half when Daemen took control with an 11-5 run. Two free throws by Sischo at the 1:06 mark capped the run and gave Daemen its largest lead of the half, 45-31.

Daemen would take a 46-34 lead into halftime and the Wildcats opened the second half with a 12-4 run. A pull up jumper by junior Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) with 16:33 left to play capped the run and gave the Wildcats a 20-point lead at 58-38. The Daemen lead was 18 points, 64-46, with 13 minutes to play when the hosts put together an 11-3 run. A bucket by junior Latrell Butler with 9:40 left capped the spurt and cut the Daemen lead to 10 points, 67-57. That's as close as D'Youville would get, as Daemen responded with a 16-3 run that featured four three-pointers from graduate student Kyle Harris (Buffalo, N.Y.).  A layup by Sischo with 5:58 left capped the run and gave the Wildcats an 83-60 lead.

IMPACT PLAYERS

• Sischo registered his 13th double-double (12th consecutive) of the season and finished with 36 points and 16 rebounds. The 36 points was one shy of tying his season-high for points (37) which came in an 83-71 win over St. Rose on Nov. 27. It is the third time this season and 18th time over his career he has scored 30 or more points in a game. He has now scored at least 20 points in 30 of his last 35 games. His 13 double-doubles this season leads NCAA Division II and today's was the 73rd of his career.
• Harris finished with a season-high 18 points and five assists.
• Sophomore Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) and junior Nick MacDonald (Amherst, N.Y.) continued their solid play of late. Mason played a season-high 37 minutes and finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists. He drilled three three-pointers today and is shooting 11-of-20 (55%) from downtown over the last four games. MacDonald contributed 13 points in 24 minutes off the bench. He has scored in double figures in three of the last four games and has made 7-of-11 from three-point range over the last two games.
• Graduate student Sean Fasoyiro (Houston, Tex) scored in double figures for the sixth time in seven games and finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
• Sophomore forward Chris Stineman connected on 12-of-20 field goals and finished with a career-high 27 points for the Saints. Putnam added 19 points for the hosts.

GAME NOTES

• Daemen returns 11 players, including all five starters, from their 2020-21 team that won the NCAA Division II East Region Championship and advanced to the Elite Eight.
• Today's game marked the 10th all-time meeting between the two cross-town rivals. Daemen improved to 10-0 in the series.
• Daemen shot 44-percent (31-70) from the field overall, while the Saints finished 29-of-65 (45%). The Wildcats were good on 10-of-25 three-point attempts and have now made 10 or more three-pointers in three of the last five games. D'Youville went 5-of-19 from downtown.
• Daemen had a season-low seven turnovers today and has committed just 16 turnovers over the last two games.
• Daemen held the advantage in points off turnovers (15-6) and second chance points (20-13), while D'Youville posted a 40-38 edge in points in the paint.
• A two-time consensus All-American and three-time ECC Player of the Year, Sischo is NCAA Division II's active leader in career points (2,550), rebounds (1,296) and double-doubles (73). He is the all-time leading scorer and all-time leading rebounder in Daemen and ECC history.
• Sischo's first rebound of the game today made him the ECC's all-time leading rebounder. He entered the game tied him with former St. Rose standout Damon Reed atop the ECC career rebounding list.
• Sischo, who became just the 34th player in NCAA Division II history to score 2,500 points earlier this week, also ranks among the top-10 leaders in career rebounds in NCAA Division II history.
• Sischo also added a Western New York record to his career resume today, as he passed former Niagara University and NBA standout Calvin Murphy to become the all-time leading scorer from a Western New York collegiate institution. Murphy netted 2,548 points over his three-year career at NU.

NEXT JUMP BALL

The Wildcats return to East Coast Conference play Friday (Jan. 14) when they host Molloy College.
 

Daemen College features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 18 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.

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