Geoff Schneider

Men's Basketball Ranked 8th In Latest D2CSC Regional Poll

1/16/2024 9:01:00 AM

By: CONTACT: Tom McDermott, Director of Athletics Communications | tmcdermo@daemen.edu

AMHERST, N.Y. – The Daemen University men's basketball team is ranked No. 8 in the eighth Division II College Sports Communicators (D2CSC) East Region Men's Basketball Media Poll for 2023-24. The Wildcats dropped three spots after being ranked fifth last week. Daemen opened the season ranked fifth in the first poll of the 2023-24 season and then spent three weeks at the No. 7 spot, one week and No. 9 and one week at No. 8 before jumping to fifth last week.

Daemen has been ranked in 65 of the last 73 D2CSC (formerly D2SIDA) regional polls dating back to January 2018.

The Wildcats played just one game last week, dropping a 71-62 decision to the College of Staten Island at Lumsden Gymnasium. Daemen was scheduled to host the University of the District of Columbia on Sunday, but the winter storm that hit the Buffalo area over the weekend forced the postponement of that game. The loss to CSI snapped Daemen's 16-game home court winning streak, which was the longest home winning streak in the East region, and dropped the Wildcats to 12-5 overall and 2-2 in East Coast Conference play. Daemen has featured a balanced scoring attack and solid defense in its 17 games thus far. Five players are averaging in double figures and a sixth player is contributing 9.9 points. Senior Dylan Fasoyiro (Houston, Tex.) has scored over 20 points six times this season and is averaging 15.8 points with 28 three-pointers and 18 steals. Sophomore Justin Glover (Buffalo, N.Y.) has scored in double figures in 13 of 16 games and is averaging 13.3 points and 3.3 assists. Graduate student Joey Atkins (Watervliet, N.Y.), the ECC Preseason Player of the Year, is averaging 11.8 points and 7.8 rebounds. A four-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week selection, he ranks second among the ECC leaders in both blocks (28) and steals (27). Fifth-year senior Nick MacDonald (Amherst, N.Y.) is averaging 11.6 points, while senior Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) is contributing 11.3 points with a team-high 44 three-pointers. Senior Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) is producing 9.9 points and a team-high 7.9 rebounds per contest.

Daemen collected 18 points in this week's regional poll. Post collected three of the six first-place votes and totaled 56 points, edging out Saint Thomas Aquinas (54) for the top stop. STAC, which got two first-place votes, was ranked first in the region each of the last five weeks. The remainder of the top five includes Saint Michael's (52), Pace (41) and Southern Connecticut (35). The bottom half of the poll includes Southern New Hampshire (32), Bentley (19), Daemen, Adelphi (13) and Dominican (10).

The D2CSC East Region media poll is conducted by sports information professionals representing the East Coast Conference, Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference and Northeast-10 Conference.

*D2CSC MEN'S BASKETBALL EAST REGION MEDIA POLL - WEEK 8*
	W-L	PTS.	LAST WEEK
1. Post (3)	12-2	56	3
2. St. Thomas Aquinas (2)	11-3	54	1
3. Saint Michael's (1)	12-3	52	2
4. Pace	11-4	41	6
5. Southern Connecticut	11-4	35	4
6. Southern New Hampshire	10-4	32	8
7. Bentley	10-6	19	7
8. DAEMEN	12-5	18	5
9. Adelphi	11-4	13	10
10. Dominican (N.Y.)	10-5	10	9

( ) denotes first-place votes

Others receiving votes: None

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, Facebook and Instagram at @DaemenMBB.

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