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Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
harris mbb vs west texas
Tevor Fleeman
Kyle Harris led another three-point shooting barrage in today's win at Bridgeport
95
Winner Daemen DAEM 16-6, 13-0 ECC
74
Bridgeport BPTM 8-13, 5-7 ECC
Winner
Daemen DAEM
16-6, 13-0 ECC
95
Final
74
Bridgeport BPTM
8-13, 5-7 ECC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Daemen DAEM 50 45 95
Bridgeport BPTM 31 43 74

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | CONTACT: Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for Communications/Operations | 716-839-8385 | mmiranto@daemen.edu

Wildcats Extend Winning Streak With Dominant Performance At Bridgeport

BRIDGEPORT, Conn - For the fifth time in the last eight games Daemen shot better than 50% both overall and from three-point range and cruised to a 95-74 win over Bridgeport in East Coast Conference men's basketball action at Harvey Hubbell Gymnasium this afternoon. The Wildcats matched their season high by burying 14 three-pointers, including 11 in the first half. 

Daemen extended its winning streak to 11 straight games and improved to 16-6 overall. The Wildcats also kept their unblemished conference record intact at 13-0 and have now won 20 of their last 22 regular season ECC games dating back to the start of last season. Today's win gives the Wildcats a sweep of the season series with UB for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign. 

Bridgeport tasted defeat for the fifth time in their last six games, falling to 8-13 overall and 5-7 in the league. 

Both teams opened the game firing on all cylinders offensively. Daemen connected on their first seven three-pointers, but UB hung around thanks to four three-pointers of their own. Taj Chiles' trifecta at the 7:37 mark pulled UB within 29-28. Sean Fasoyiro (Houston, Texas) answered with another long-range bomb for the Wildcats, sparking what would be the game's definitive run. Daemen outscored UB 21-3 over the final 7:13 of the first half. Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.) netted seven points and Kyle Harris (Buffalo, N.Y.) drilled two of his game-high five three-pointers in the spurt. Reserve guard Nick MacDonald (Amherst, N.Y.) capped the run in a fitting way, nailing a three-pointer with 34 seconds left to give Daemen a 50-31 lead heading into halftime. The Wildcats finished 11-for-18 from downtown in the period.

The Purple Knights cut the deficit to 15 early in the second half, but a 14-2 Daemen run shortly thereafter extinguished any thoughts of a comeback. Zecaree Veiga (Providence, R.I.) put down a vicious one-handed slam and MacDonald canned two more triples in the spurt which put the Wildcats ahead 75-44 with just over 10 minutes to play. The Purple Knights made some headway late, but never got the deficit under 21 points. 


IMPACT PLAYERS

  • Sischo finished with 18 points and eight boards in just 24 minutes of action. The Daemen big man shot 6-for-8 from the field and 6-for-7 from the charity stripe while adding two assists, two steals and a blocked shot. 
  • Harris shot 5-for-7 from three-point range and finished with 15 points - all in the first half. 
  • Junior guard Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) made a pair of three-pointers and scored all 10 of his points in the opening stanza. He added a career-high eight assists.
  • MacDonald led a barrage of scoring off the Daemen bench, finishing with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting (4-of-7 from three-point range). The Wildcats matched their season-high with 35 points off the bench today. 
  • Fasoyiro, Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) and Joey Atkins (Watervliet, N.Y.) all had strong games as well. Fasoyiro contributed nine points, five boards and three assists. Mason hit two three-pointers as part of an eight-point outing, and Atkins finished with eight points and five rebounds in 13 minutes off the bench.
  • Mason Williams, a transfer from Division I Fordham, led a trio of double-figure scorers for UB, finishing with 17 points. Nemanja Zubac (11 points) and Ali Sumareh (10 points) chipped in as well. 


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 fifth in the NCAA Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) East Region Men's Basketball Media Poll. The Wildcats are also receiving votes for the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Top-25 Poll for a third consecutive week.
  • Bridgeport was without three players from their main rotation, including starters Malcolm Moye (13.4 ppg) and Tim Dawson (12.7 ppg).
  • Daemen finished 35-for-64 from the field (54.7%). The Wildcats have shot better than 50-percent from the field in seven of its last eight games (256-for-484 from the field in that span - 52.9%).
  • Daemen has made 10 or more three-pointers in seven of the last 10 games, shooting 104-for-227 in that span (45.8%). 
  • Bridgeport shot 29-for-68 from the field (42.6%) and 9-for-31 from three-point range (29%). Daemen entered the game ranked 12th in Division II for three-point field goal percentage defense and has now held 13 opponents to less than 30% downtown shooting this season. 
  • Daemen finished with 25 assists today - two shy of the season-high set in Wednesday's win at Roberts Wesleyan. The Wildcats have recorded 15 or more assists in 13 of their last 14 games. 
  • Daemen is off to its best start in conference play (13-0) since winning its first eight league games in 2003-04 when the Wildcats were competing as a member of the now-defunct American Mideast Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
  • This marks the third time in the last four seasons that Daemen has put together a winning streak of at least 10 games. The Wildcats are outscoring opponents by 19.4 points per game during the streak. 
  • Daemen's 13 straight conference wins mark the second-longest streak since the program joined the ECC. The longest came in the program's inaugural ECC campaign (2013-14) when the Wildcats won their final 16 conference games and won the regular season ECC title with a 17-3 record. 
  • Today's game featured two of the seven active head coaches in the NCAA Division II East Region with at least 400 career wins. Daemen's Mike MacDonald ranks sixth in the region (35th among all active Division II coaches) with 412 career wins. Bridgeport's Mike Ruane ranks seventh in the regino (39th in Division II) with 401 career victories. 
  • A two-time consensus All-American and three-time ECC Player of the Year, Sischo was recently named to the Bevo Francis Award Top 100 Watch List. He is NCAA Division II's active leader in career points (2,714), rebounds (1,390) and double-doubles (78). 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. During today's game he became only the 19th player in NCAA Division II history to reach 2,700 career points. Sischo ranks 19th in career points and seventh in career rebounds all-time in Division II. 
  • Today's game marked the 126th of Sischo's career. He is one of only three players to appear in that many contests for Daemen and is just four more appearances away from becoming the program's all-time leader in games played. Sischo has scored 10+ points in 87 of his last 88 games and in 119 games total for his career.  
  • Fasoyiro stands just eight points shy of 1,000 for his career. He totaled 494 points during his three seasons at Franklin Pierce and has netted 498 points in 38 games at Daemen (13.1 ppg). Daemen is now 26-12 with Fasoyiro in the starting lineup and 11-2 this season when he records at least three assists. 
  • Harris reached double figures for the eighth time in the last 13 games. He's now connected on 29 of his last 55 three-point attempts (52.7%). 
  • Mason has made at least two three-pointers in 18 of his 20 games this season. He leads the team with 51 three-point field goals. He entered today's game shooting 50.5% from three-point range, ranking first in the ECC and second in Division II.
  • Salzberg reached double figures for the fourth time this season and for the third time in the last five games. 


NEXT JUMP BALL
The Wildcats kickoff the final home stand of the regular season next Wednesday, February 9 when they host crosstown rival D'Youville. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.

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.

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