Daemen Hosts East Region Challenge This Weekend

Tournament Features Teams From All Three NCAA Division II East Region Conferences

11/10/2022 11:28:00 AM

GAMES #1 & #2
Daemen Wildcats (0-0, 0-0 ECC) vs. Georgian Court Lions (0-0, 0-0 CACC)
DATE: Friday, Nov. 11
TIME: 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Amherst, N.Y. | Lumsden Gymnasium
LIVE STATS: via Daemen Athletics / LIVE VIDEO: via ECC Network

Daemen Wildcats (0-0, 0-0 ECC) vs. Saint Anselm Hawks (0-0, 0-0 NE-10)
DATE: Saturday, Nov. 12
TIME: 1 p.m.
LOCATION: Amherst, N.Y. | Lumsden Gymnasium
LIVE STATS: via Daemen Athletics / LIVE VIDEO: via ECC Network

JUMP BALL
Daemen opens the 2022-23 season by hosting the East Region Challenge presented by Western New York Knee and Orthopedic Surgery PC Friday and Saturday. The event, which brings together teams from each of the three Division II conferences in the NCAA East region, returns to Lumsden Gymnasium after a two year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
The event tips off at 11 a.m. Friday with Roberts Wesleyan of the East Coast Conference taking on Saint Anselm, a Northeast-10 Conference affiliate. RWU has been a part of each of the previous six tournaments and the Redhawks hold a 5-7 all-time tournament record. Saint Anselm will be making its tournament debut. The 1 p.m. Friday nightcap has Daemen taking on another team making its tournament debut, Georgian Court out of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. It will mark the first ever meeting between Daemen and Georgian Court. The Wildcats will put their 11-1 all-time tournament mark on the line. The matchups flip on Saturday. Roberts Wesleyan takes on Georgian Court at 11 a.m., followed by Daemen facing St. Anselm at 1 p.m. It will mark just the third all-time meeting between the Wildcats and the Hawks.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE
Tickets for the East Region Challenge and all 2022-23 Daemen home games are on sale through Daemen's online ticketing web page. Lock in your tickets before arriving at Lumsden Gym. Visit http://daemenwildcats.com/tickets for details. Please note, all tickets must be purchased online. No cash sales will be available at Lumsden Gym.

FREE TICKETS FOR VETERANS
Daemen is pleased to be offering free tickets to this weekend's tournament for active duty & retired military personnel in observance of Veterans Day. Go to http://daemenwildcats.com/tickets and use the promo code "ThankYouVets". Must show valid military ID w/ digital ticket upon arrival. Please note, all tickets must be purchased online. No cash sales will be available at Lumsden Gym.

RETURN OF THE MAC
Mike MacDonald returns for his ninth season on Daemen's bench and his 26^th overall as a collegiate head coach. The veteran mentor has led Daemen to a 159-66 record since taking the reins in 2014. The Wildcats rank second in victories among all East Coast Conference and New York State Division II teams in that span. He has won more games at Daemen than during previous stints as the head coach at Canisius (108 wins in nine seasons) and Medaille (149 wins in eight seasons). MacDonald is among an elite fraternity of coaches to have achieved 100 victories across all three NCAA divisions. Daemen's 81-72 win over Roberts Wesleyan on Dec. 8, 2021 was the 400th of his career.

NEW LOOK WILDCATS
Daemen returns 10 players from last year and welcomes six freshmen and three transfers. The Wildcats finished 20-9 overall and 16-2 in the ECC last year. The Wildcats suffered a 59-48 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas in the championship game of the ECC Tournament and were denied an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Daemen was looking to make its fourth-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Daemen must overcome the loss of center Andrew Sischo, a three-time All-America selection who closed out his career as the ECC's all-time leading scorer and rebounder. He averaged 22.9 points and a Division II leading 13.0 rebounds per game last year. Not to be overlooked, guard Sean Fasoyiro was also lost to graduation. Fasoyiro ranked second on the team in scoring (12.6 ppg) last year and collected All-ECC honors in each of his two seasons at Daemen. Shooting guard Kyle Harris, who led the team in three-point field goals (58) last year, was also lost to graduation. Senior guards Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) and Nick MacDonald (Amherst, N.Y.), redshirt senior Joey Atkins (Watervliet, N.Y.) and junior guard Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) top the list of returning players. Salzberg started 26 games last year and averaged 7.3 points with a team-high 91 assists. MacDonald averaged 20 minutes off the bench and contributed 7.2 points per game with 43 three-pointers. Atkins played in 27 of 29 games last year and ranked second on the team in blocks (21). Mason started 23 games and ranked third on the team in points per game (9.1) and second in three-pointers (56).

SUSTAINED SUCCESS
The Daemen program has been built on sustained success, winning at least 19 games in 10 of the last 11 seasons. That span encompasses the end of Daemen's NAIA Era, its NCAA transition period and the first seven seasons of full NCAA Division II membership. The Wildcats have won 72% of their contests, going 227-90 in that span. Looking more recently, Daemen is 100-37 since the start of the 2017-18 season (.730 winning percentage).

ALL IN THE FAMILY
MacDonald's son Nick is a senior guard at Daemen. He transferred to Daemen after playing his first two seasons at Division I Niagara.

BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK
Daemen earned three consecutive NCAA Division II Tournament berths from 2019 to 2021. The Wildcats won 24 games (NCAA era program record) and earned at-large bids to the NCAA tournament in 2019 and 2020. The Wildcats entered the 2021 tournament as the No. 2 seed in the East Region and picked up their first-ever NCAA tourney win with an 81-69 defeat of third-seeded Bloomfield in the opening round. The Wildcats then upset top-seeded Saint Thomas Aquinas in the regional championship game en route to the program's first regional championship and Elite Eight appearance. Daemen posted a 20-9 record last year, but was denied an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

POLL POSITION
Daemen was voted first in the ECC preseason coaches' poll released earlier this week. The Wildcats are also receiving votes in the preseason NABC Division II poll and are ranked sixth in the preseason D2SIDA East Region poll.

SCOUTING THE LIONS
Georgian Court went 4-22 overall and 3-15 in the CACC last year. Head coach Terrence Stewart is entering his sixth season at GCU. Georgian Court returns four players who started at least 15 games last season. Junior guard Clint Wright, Jr. scored over 20 points seven times last year and averaged a team-high 16.0 points. He shot 44-percent from three-point land and totaled a CACC-best and program record 80 three-pointers last year. Senior guard Shane Williams also returns after averaging 7.2 points and 5.8 rebounds with a team-high 61 assists. The Lions brought in five true freshmen and two transfers. Junior college transfer Jalen Bates averaged 8.1 points and 6.1 assists at Dallas College Mountain View last year. Sophomore forward Jamaal Waters played at Southern Connecticut State last year and averaged 6.6 points and 4.5 rebounds. The Lions were picked eighth in the CACC South Division preseason coaches' poll.

SCOUTING THE HAWKS
St. Anselm went 17-11 overall and 11-8 in the NE-10 last year. The Hawks advanced to the semifinals of the NE-10 Tournament and were awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Saint Anselm suffered a 78-70 loss to New Haven in the opening round of the NCAAs. Saint Anselm has advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament nine of the last 10 years and boasts 24 NCAA tournament appearances overall. Veteran head coach Keith Dickson returns for his 37th season at Saint Anselm and owns a 681-353 (.659) career record. He ranks fifth among active Division II coaches in career wins. The Hawks return nine players and three starters from last year's team, but must overcome the graduation of first-team All-Region forward Chris Paul. Graduate student guard Miles Tention and senior guard Tyler Arbuckle top the list of returning players. Tention, a Second Team All-Conference performer last year, played over 37 minutes per game last year and averaged 14.1 points. He also ranked second among the NE-10 leaders in three-pointers made (78) and three-point field goal percentage (.415). Arbuckle produced 12.8 points and 3.5 assists per game last year. Junior guard Matt Becker, who started 15 games last year, also returns after averaging 6.9 points and 6.6 rebounds last year. The Hawks welcome two freshman and four transfers. The Hawks were picked fourth in the NE-10 preseason coaches' poll and are also ranked fourth in the preseason D2SIDA East Region poll.

ON THE HORIZON
Daemen, which plays its first four games at home, returns to Lumsden Gymnasium Wednesday for a non-conference matchup against Mercyhurst University of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.

Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 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.

Follow the Daemen men's basketball program on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @DaemenMBB.

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