ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. - Senior Steven Torre went 4-of-6 from three-point land and totaled 25 points to lead the Molloy College men's basketball team to an 81-72 victory over Daemen College tonight at Quealy Gymnasium on the Molloy Campus.

Daemen dropped to 18-8 overall and 15-2 in the East Coast Conference, and dropped out of a first-place tie with St. Thomas Aquinas College (23-4, 16-1 ECC) atop the ECC standings. STAC can secure the regular-season ECC title and the top seed in the upcoming ECC Tournament with a win over the College of Staten Island Saturday. Molloy improved to 10-16 overall and 9-8 in the league following its third-straight win.

Molloy held a 15-10 lead eight minutes into the first half, but Daemen put together an 8-2 run over the next three minutes. Junior Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) scored the final seven points of the run and his layup with 9:22 left before half capped the spurt and game the Wildcats an 18-17 lead. The Lions responded with eight unanswered points and the hosts later took a 33-24 lead following a three-pointer by freshman Kenny Lazo with 5:37 left in the period. Molloy would take its largest lead of the half, 41-27, following a layup by freshman Darren Fergus with 3:22 left before intermission. Daemen scored the next five points and later cut the lead to seven, 43-36, following a layup by graduate student Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) with 30 seconds left in the half. Molloy took a 46-36 lead into the break after junior Pierce Boczar drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer.

The teams traded baskets early in the second half and the Molloy lead was still 10 points, 55-45, when the Wildcats got a layup from Sischo and a three-pointer from sophomore Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) to make it a five point game, 55-50. Molloy quickly regained a double-digit lead following three unanswered buckets, but Daemen rattled off nine-straight points and made it a one possession game, 61-59, after graduate student Sean Fasoyiro (Houston, Tex.) drilled a three-point with 11:02 to play. Molloy held a 68-66 lead with just over four minutes to play when the hosts scored seven unanswered points, five of which were scored by Torre at the charity stripe. Fasoyiro made it a seven point game, 77-70, with a three-pointer with 1:23 left, but the Wildcats did not score again until the final seconds.

IMPACT PLAYERS

• Four players scored in double figures for the Lions.
• Torre, who did not play when the Wildcats posted a 93-59 win over Molloy at Daemen back on Jan. 14, went 7-of-13 from the field and canned 7-of-8 free throws. Junior forward William Muller added 15 points, while Lazo chipped in 14 points.
• Sischo connected on 10-of-16 shots and paced the Wildcats with 27 points and 11 rebounds—his Division II leading 21st double-double of the year. He has scored 10+ points in 91 of his last 92 games and in 123 games total for his career.
• Salzberg added 16 points, four rebounds and five assists, while Fasoyiro totaled 11 points, five rebounds and three assists.
• Redshirt junior Joey Atkins (Watervliet, N.Y.) added eight points and six boards in just 11 minutes off the bench.

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.
• Daemen entered the game ranked eighth in this week's NCAA Division II East Region poll.
• Daemen shot 45.5-percent (25-for-55) from the field overall, but connected on just 8-of-23 from downtown. The Wildcats also converted just 14-of-22 from the charity stripe.
• The Lions shot 53-percent (19-for-36) from the field in the first half and finished 30-of-60 (50%) from the field overall. Molloy attempted 19 three-pointers and made eight. The Lions made 13-of-20 from the free throw line (11-of-18 in the second half).
• Daemen turned the ball over 18 times and Molloy took advantage with a 16-8 edge in points off turnovers.
• Daemen had 16 assists on 25 field goals. The Wildcats have now registered 10 of more assists in 19-straight games.
• A two-time consensus All-American and three-time ECC Player of the Year, Sischo was recently named to the Bevo Francis Award Top 50 Watch List. He became only the 18th player in NCAA Division II history to reach 2,800 career points during tonight's game. He is NCAA Division II's active leader in career points (2,802), rebounds (1,436) and double-doubles (81). He is the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in Daemen and ECC history, as well as the all-time leading scorer among all NCAA men's basketball programs in the state of New York. Sischo ranks 18th in career points and sixth in career rebounds all-time in Division II. 
• Tonight's game marked the 130th of Sischo's career, making him the program leader in career games played.  
• Fasoyiro scored his 1,000th career point during a recent win over D'Youville. He totaled 494 points during his three seasons at Franklin Pierce and has netted 555 points in 42 games at Daemen (13.2 ppg). Daemen is now 28-14 with Fasoyiro in the starting lineup.
• Salzberg has scored in double figures in five of the last nine games.

NEXT JUMP BALL

The Wildcats close out the regular season Saturday (Feb. 26) with a league game at Queens 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.

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