Geoff Schneider

Wildcats Host Key Conference Games This Weekend

Daemen Welcomes Nationally-Ranked and League-Leading STAC Friday and Mercy Sunday

2/15/2024 11:40:00 AM

JUMP BALL
Daemen hosts nationally-ranked St. Thomas Aquinas College and Mercy University in East Coast Conference games this weekend. Daemen enters the weekend in third place in the ECC standings.

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE
Tickets for all 2023-24 Daemen home games are on sale through Daemen's online ticketing portal. Lock in your tickets before arriving at Lumsden Gym. Please note, all tickets must be purchased online. No cash sales will be available at Lumsden Gym.

THE SEASON AHEAD
The Wildcats return several key players 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. Daemen was picked second in the ECC preseason coaches' poll and was also receiving votes in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II preseason poll.

POLL POSITION
Daemen is ranked eighth in the D2 College Sports Communicators (D2CSC) East Region poll released Monday, Feb. 5.

THE SEASON SO FAR
Daemen has gone 6-1 since suffering a 92-82 loss at St. Thomas Aquinas back on Jan. 19. The Wildcats stand at 17-7 overall and are in third place in the ECC standings with a 7-4 league mark. Daemen has featured a balanced scoring attack and solid defense thus far. Six players are averaging in double figures and the Wildcats lead the ECC in fewest points allowed per game (70.0). Senior Dylan Fasoyiro (Houston, Tex.) recently returned to the lineup after missing seven games with a hand injury. He totaled 24 points in the loss to Staten Island against D'Youville and is averaging 15.9 points with 34 three-pointers. Sophomore Justin Glover (Buffalo, N.Y.) is averaging 12.4 points and 3.4 assists with 39 three-pointers. Graduate student Joey Atkins (Watervliet, N.Y.), the ECC Preseason Player of the Year, is averaging 12.3 points and 7.7 rebounds. A five-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week selection, he ranks second among the ECC leaders in blocks (40) and fifth in steals (37). Fifth-year senior Nick MacDonald (Amherst, N.Y.) is averaging 10.7 points, while senior Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) is contributing 11.5 points with a team-high 65 three-pointers. Senior Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) is producing 10.7 points and a team-high 7.9 rebounds per contest..

WILDCATS SPLIT WEEKEND ROAD TRIP
The Wildcats return to action after going 1-1 during a road trip last weekend. Daemen had a four-game winning streak snapped following a 79-67 loss at Staten Island Friday and rebounded with a 79-71 win at the District of Columbia on Sunday. Dylan Fasoyiro scored 24 points in the loss to CSI. Justin Glover scored a career-high 21 points and Joey Atkins added 20 points and 10 rebounds in the win over UDC.

THERE'S NO I IN TEAM
Daemen features a balanced attack with six players averaging between 10.7 and 15.9 points per game. Daemen has six players ranked among the Top-25 ECC scoring leaders. No other team has more than three players. The Wildcats have had 17 games where four players have scored in double figures and five players have reached double digits in points eight times. A season-high six players scored in double figures during their win at Clarion on Nov. 26 and their double OT win at Saint Anselm on Dec. 31.

SHARP SHOOTERS
Daemen ranks first among ECC teams in field goal percentage (.467) and has shot over 45-percent from the field in 13 of its 24 games. The Wildcats are 8-0 this year when they shoot 50-percent or better from the field.

GETTING DEFENSIVE
Daemen has limited 13 of its 24 opponents to less than 70 points and leads the ECC in team defense, allowing just 70.0 points per game. The Wildcats also rank first in the ECC in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 41-percent from the field. Daemen has produced the ECC Defensive Player of the Week seven times this season. Joey Atkins has earned the honor five times, while Justin Hemphill is a two-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week selection.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Wildcats are 9-1 at home this season and have won 18 of their last 19 home games dating back to last season. They are 101-19 (.842) at home during Daemen's NCAA Division II era (2015-present).

NOTABLE
Joey Atkins recorded his 100th career block during a loss to Dominican on Nov. 18. He has totaled 131 career blocks and has moved into the top five in career blocks among Daemen's all-time leaders. Dylan Fasoyiro scored his 600th career point during a loss at Queens. After scoring just 23 points during his two seasons at Ashland, he has racked up 661 points in 46 games (14.4 ppg) at Daemen. Andrew Mason has become the seventh player in program history to reach 200 career three-pointers. He recorded his 200th during the win over Molloy on Dec. 8 and ranks fourth in career three-pointers at Daemen with 241. Mason scored his 1,000th career point during the win at UDC last weekend. Nick MacDonald recorded his 150th career three-pointer during a win over Saint Anselm. MacDonald leads the ECC and ranks ninth nationally in free throw percentage (64-70/.914). He scored his 1,000th career point during the win over Queens on Jan. 28.

MACDONALD NOTCHES WIN NO. 450
Head coach Mike MacDonald registered the 450th win of his career following the victory over Molloy on Jan. 26. Among active NCAA Division II coaches, he ranks first in the ECC, fifth in the East Region and 26th nationally in career wins with 453. MacDonald is in his 10th season on the Daemen 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 196-81, 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 453-307 and Daemen's 81-72 win over Roberts Wesleyan on Dec. 8, 2021 was the 400th of his career.

FAMILIAR FACES
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. Veteran point guard Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.), who started all 28 games last year and averaged 32 minutes a game, was set to return but suffered a preseason injury. Senior Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.), 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. Sophomore guard Justin Glover (Buffalo, N.Y.) is set to step into the starting lineup following the loss of Salzberg. Glover played in 23 games (seven starts) as a freshman and averaged 4.9 points and 1.8 assists. Ayden Harrison (Clifton Park, N.Y.), Phil Nwugwo (Rochester, N.Y.) and Jackson Kulik (Webster, N.Y.) also join the mix after red shirting their freshman season last year.

NEWCOMERS
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 Hartford, 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. Philipkoski was named the ECC Rookie of the Week after scoring 34 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in a recent win at Mercy.

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).

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 SPARTANS
St. Thomas Aquinas (19-4, 10-1 ECC) had an eight-game winning streak snapped last night following a non-league loss to regionally-ranked Dominican (90-73). STAC has been ranked No. 1 in the region for the majority of the season. Nationally, the Spartans come in at No. 15 in this week's NABC Division II poll and are ranked 12th in the D2CSC poll. The Spartans went 26-5 overall (15-1 ECC) and claimed their fourth-straight ECC Tournament title last year. STAC advanced t the NCAA Division II Tournament for the eighth-straight year and suffered a loss to Southern New Hampshire in the opening round. Matt Capel, a long-time assistant coach at STAC, was named ECC Coach of the Year in his first season as head coach last year. STAC returns three starters and 11 players from last year. The Spartans lead the ECC and rank seventh nationally in points per game (90.7). Sophomore forward James Patterson, the 2022-23 ECC Rookie of the Year, returns after averaging 14.4 points and 7.1 rebounds as a rookie. Patterson is an eight-time ECC Player of the Week selection this year and ranks third among the NCAA Division II leaders in points per game (24.5). He is also contributing 8.8 rebounds per game, which ranks third in the ECC. He totaled 29 points and 14 rebounds in the loss to Dominican and stands just six points shy of 1,000 for his career. Senior Jamal Barnes leads the team in three-pointer field goals (60) and is averaging 11.6 points, while sophomore Kyle Pulliam is averaging 11.9 points. STAC was ranked first in the ECC preseason coaches' poll.

SERIES HISTORY
Friday's game will mark the 32nd all-time meeting between Daemen and STAC. The Spartans have prevailed in five of the last six meetings and own a 21-10 advantage in the series. The teams split their two regular season meetings last year, before STAC posted a 72-66 win in the ECC Tournament championship game.

SCOUTING THE MAVERICKS
Mercy (1-20, 0-11 ECC) remained winless in conference play following an 84-68 loss to Roberts Wesleyan last weekend. Mercy went 6-20 overall and 3-13 in ECC play last year. Chris Watts is in his second season as head coach. Mercy lost two of its top three scorers from last season and returns just seven players. Senior forward Jayden Dewaal is back after averaging 12.3 points and 10.7 rebounds last year. He has played in 17 of 21 games this year and is averaging 15.5 points and a league-high 10.3 rebounds. Additional production has come from senior Alex May (14.8 points), junior Taj Chiles (12.2 ppg, 4.1 apg) and graduate student Garrett Kirkland (9.2 ppg, 55 3pt FGs). Mercy was picked ninth in the ECC preseason coaches' poll.

SERIES HISTORY
Sunday's game will mark the 22nd all-time meeting between Daemen and Mercy. Daemen has prevailed in each of the previous 21 meetings.

ON THE HORIZON
Daemen continues its four-game stretch of home games when it hosts the University of the District of Columbia on Thursday (Feb. 22).

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.

Print Friendly Version