AMHERST, N.Y. - Daemen University is the No. 10 team in the official NCAA Division II East Region rankings for men's basketball, which were released this afternoon. It marks the second of three polls that will be released by the Regional Advisory Committee. The NCAA announces 10-team rankings for each of the eight regions across the country for three successive weeks leading up to the NCAA Championship selection announcement, which will be made this year on Sunday, March 5.
The East Region of NCAA Division II is comprised of teams from the East Coast Conference, the Northeast-10 Conference and the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. The eight-team NCAA Championships East Regional —one of eight regional tournaments that comprise the 64-team NCAA tournament—will consist of three automatic berths and five at-large selections, and it takes place the second weekend of March at a site that is yet to be determined.
Under the guidance of ninth-year head coach Mike MacDonald, the Wildcats have posted an 18-7 overall record so far this season, as well as an 11-4 mark in ECC play. Daemen owns a 3-2 mark against teams included in this week's regional rankings—having defeated No. 2 Saint Anselm, No. 7 Franklin Pierce and No. 8 St. Thomas Aquinas and having lost to No. 6 Pace University and No. 8 St. Thomas Aquinas.
Daemen extended its winning streak to six games following wins over league leading St. Thomas Aquinas (83-57) and Mercy (82-51) this past weekend at Lumsden Gymnasium. The Wildcats have won 15 of their last 17 games and are in second place in the ECC standings. Daemen is outscoring its opponents by 22 points and is shooting 55-percent (188-342) from the field overall and 48.5-percent (63-130) from three-point land during its six game winning streak. Head coach Mike MacDonald coached his 250th game at Daemen on Sunday. He has posted a 177-73 (.708) record in his nine seasons at Daemen. Junior Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) is shooting 60-percent from three-point land during the six game winning streak and ranks second nationally in three-point field goal percentage on the year at 51-percent (72-142). Redshirt senior Joey Atkins( Watervliet, N.Y.) ranks second on the team in both scoring (12.5 ppg) and rebounding (6.0 rpg) and ranks seventh nationally in total blocks (57). Atkins has totaled the most blocks in a season by a Daemen player since Gerald Beverly posted 110 rejections in 2014-15. Daemen closes out the regular season Saturday at home against D'Youville.
Bentley (20-5) of the Northeast-10 sits atop the NCAA Regional poll, while Saint Anselm (19-7), Southern New Hampshire (19-7), New Haven (17-9) and Dominican (20-6) round out the top five. The bottom five consists of Pace (19-9), Franklin Pierce (16-11), St. Thomas Aquinas (22-4), Southern Connecticut (17-11) and Daemen.
Daemen 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.
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