FLUSHING, N.Y. - Grad students Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) and Sean Fasoyiro (Houston, Texas) combined for 44 points and 20 rebounds to lead the Daemen men's basketball team to a 67-55 win over Queens (N.Y.) in the regular season finale today at Fitzgerald Gymnasium.

Daemen improved to 19-8 overall and 16-2 in the East Coast Conference. The Wildcats finish the regular season in second place in the ECC standings and will be the No. 2 seed in the ECC Championship tournament which gets underway next week. Queens, which had already clinched a conference tournament berth, dropped to 11-11 overall and 9-9 in conference play while seeing their three-game winning streak snapped. 

Daemen led by as many as nine points in the first half, but the home-standing Knights closed the period on a 13-2 run and took a 32-30 lead into the break. Dion Herrington netted six straight points to spark the run. Caudy Desmornes scored five points in the final 1:25, tying the game (30-30) on a three-pointer before giving the Knights their first lead of the contest. 

Daemen responded with a 13-2 run of their own to start the second half. Sischo and Fasoyiro combined for the fist six points of the run as the Wildcats quickly reclaimed the lead. Fasoyiro's layup at the 12:58 mark off a feed from Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) re-established Daemen's nine-point lead, 43-34. 

Queens hung around and pulled within four (49-45) after another Desmornes three-pointer. Back-to-back buckets by Sischo and another from reserve forward Joey Atkins (Watervliet, N.Y.) provided some breathing room. 

It was a similar story late in the game when Shamar Chester nailed a corner three-pointer to bring Queens within four (59-55) once again. Daemen again responded, this time with Fasoyiro playing the starring role. The 6-foot-3 guard scored seven straight points, the last of which coming on an old-fashioned three-point play that put Daemen ahead by double figures (66-55) with 1:14 to play, extinguishing any thoughts of a Queens comeback. 
 

IMPACT PLAYERS

• Sischo connected on 10-of-15 shots and paced the Wildcats with 27 points and 15 rebounds—his Division II leading 22nd double-double of the year. He has scored 10+ points in 92 of his last 93 games and today's output marked his 15th 20-point game of the season (75th of his career). 
• Fasoyiro scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half, finishing 7-for-12 from the field. He added five rebounds. 
• Salzberg chipped in six points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. 
• Herrington was the lone Knight to reach double figures, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Desmornes finished with nine points while Eddie Mehmetaj totaled team-highs in rebounds (7) and assists (5). 

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 26-for-54 from the field (48.1%) and 6-for-17 from three-point range (35.3%). Daemen has shot at least 48% from the field in 13 of the last 16 games.
• Queens finished 22-for-55 from the field (40%) and 6-for-14 from downtown (42.9%). 
• 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 Thursday's game at Molloy. He is the active leader in career points (2,829), rebounds (1,451) and double-doubles (82) across all NCAA divisions. 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 17th in career points and sixth in career rebounds all-time in Division II.
• Sischo ends the regular season as the ECC scoring (22.4 ppg) and rebounding (13.0 rpg) champion.
• 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 572 points in 43 games at Daemen (13.3 ppg). Daemen is now 29-14 with Fasoyiro in the starting lineup.
• Daemen has now won at least 19 games in 10 of the last 11 seasons. That span encompasses the end of the program's NAIA era, its NCAA transition period and the first seven seasons of NCAA Division II membership. The Wildcats own a 225-87 record in that span. 
• In nine seasons as an ECC member, Daemen has never finished the regular season lower than third in the standings.
• Daemen improved to 16-2 all-time against Queens. The Wildcats have won 11 straight meetings. 

NEXT JUMP BALL
The Wildcats will head to Aquinas Hall on the campus of St. Thomas Aquinas College for the ECC Championship semifinals. Daemen will play in the second semifinal (3:30 p.m.) on Saturday, March 5 against a to-be-determined opponent. The ECC Championship gets underway with first round contests on campus sites Wednesday, March 2.

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.