Geoff Schneider

Wildcats Open Exhibition Slate At Buffalo Monday

10/20/2023 2:38:00 PM

EXHIBITION GAME #1
Daemen Wildcats vs. Buffalo Bulls
DATE: Monday, Oct. 23
TIME: 7 p.m.
LOCATION: Amherst, N.Y. | Alumni Arena
LIVE STATS: via UB Athletics
LIVE VIDEO: Not Available

JUMP BALL
Daemen plays the first of two exhibition games against Division I opponents when it makes the short trip to Alumni Arena on the campus of the University at Buffalo to take on the Bulls. Daemen and Buffalo reunite for an exhibition game for the second-straight season. The teams met every year from 2015 to 2019, before COVID-19 forced the cancelation of games in 2020 and 2021.

RETURN OF THE MAC
Head coach Mike MacDonald returns for his 10th season on Daemen's bench and his 27^th overall as a collegiate head coach. Daemen has posted at least 20 wins in five of the last six seasons (Daemen only played 16 games during the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season) and MacDonald has led the Wildcats to a record of 179-74, three NCAA Division II Tournament appearances and the 2021 NCAA Division II East Region title. 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. His overall career record stands at 436-300 and Daemen's 81-72 win over Roberts Wesleyan on Dec. 8, 2021 was the 400th of his career.

FAMILIAR FACES
Daemen returns all five starters and a total of 14 players from their 2022-23 team which went 20-8 overall and 12-4 in the East Coast Conference. The Wildcats advanced to the ECC Tournament championship game, where they suffered a 72-66 loss to top-seed St. Thomas Aquinas College. All-ECC selections Joey Atkins (Watervliet, N.Y.), Dylan Fasoyiro (Houston, Tex.), Nick MacDonald (Amherst, N.Y.) and Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) all return in 2023-24. Atkins earned first-team All-ECC honors in his first season as a starter last year after averaging 11.9 points and 6.2 rebounds. He also ranked eighth among all Division II players in blocks (65). Fasoyiro averaged a team-high 13.4 points in his first season with the team, while MacDonald contributed 12.4 points. Mason averaged 10.9 points and led all three NCAA divisions in three-point field goal percentage (.516) last year. Veterans Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) and Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) also return. Salzberg, a 6-foot-4 point guard, started all 28 games last year and averaged 32 minutes a game. Hemphill, a 6-foot-6 forward, is coming off a breakout season in which he averaged 9.0 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds off the bench. Three newcomers join the fold in 2023-24. Redshirt sophomore guard Jarius Jones (Gahanna, Ohio) spent the past two years at Ohio Dominican University. Freshmen Zach Philipkoski (New Harford, N.Y.) and Ryan Heath (Rochester, N.Y.) both earned New York State Class A all-state honors last winter and Philipkoski was also honored as the New York State Class A Player of the Year. Ayden Harrison (Clifton Park, N.Y.), Phil Nwugwo (Rochester, N.Y.) and Jackson Kulik (Webster, N.Y.) also join the mix after redshirting their freshman season last year.

SUSTAINED SUCCESS
The Daemen program has been built on sustained success, winning at least 19 games in 11 of the last 12 seasons. That span encompasses the end of Daemen's NAIA Era, its NCAA transition period and the first eight seasons of full NCAA Division II membership. The Wildcats have won 72% of their contests, going 247-98 in that span. Looking more recently, Daemen is 120-45 since the start of the 2017-18 season (.730 winning percentage).

ALL IN THE FAMILY
MacDonald's son Nick is a fifth-year 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 has posted 20 wins this last two seasons, but was denied an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament each year.

SCOUTING THE BULLS
The Bulls went 15-17 overall and 9-9 in the Mid-American Conference last year. First-year head coach George Halcovage III returns just five players and one starter from last year. Senior Isaiah Adams returns after starting all 32 games and averaing 11.6 points with 61 three-pointers. Halcovage and his staff added seven newcomers to the roster--five freshmen and two transfers. Sophomore guard Shawn Fulcher earned NJCAA all-America honors at Ellsworth Community College last year. Junior guard/forward James Graham played at Maryland and Missouri State prior to joining the Bulls this season.

ON THE HORIZON
Daemen plays its second and last exhibition game Friday (Oct. 27) when the Wildcats take on Syracuse University at the JMA Wireless Dome on the SU campus.

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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