AMHERST, N.Y. – While the snow and temperature fell outside, the No. 2/4 Daemen University men's basketball team stayed hot as they downed crosstown rival D'Youville University, 88-56, in East Coast Conference men's basketball action Thursday evening at Lumsden Gymnasium.
With the win, the Wildcats improved to 15-0 and 7-0 in ECC action while the Saints dropped their 11
th consecutive contest and fell to 2-13 and 0-7 in conference play.
IMPACT PLAYERS
• After setting a new season-high in scoring on Sunday at Queens, sophomore guard
Zach Philipkoski (New Hartford, N.Y) outdid himself again as he tallied a season-high 22 points while adding in eight rebounds across 23 minutes of work.
• Redshirt senior forward
Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) tallied 14 points while pacing the Wildcats in assists with four and steals with two
• Redshirt sophomore forward
Phil Nwugwo (Rochester, N.Y.) chipped in a season-high 11 points and hauled in a career-high eight rebounds to assist in the 'Cats winning effort.
• Redshirt sophomore center
Benjamin Bill (Hamburg, N.Y.) and graduate student guard
Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) each tallied 10 points in the win.
• Jaylin Simmons led D'Youville with 16 points and three assists while Justin Moore nabbed a team-high five rebounds in the loss.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• D'Youville held a slim 6-5 lead early in the contest, but that was their only advantage of the evening as a triple from graduate student
Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) ignited a 21-2 run for the 'Cats that saw them go up 28-6 with 9:28 in the first half.
• Daemen did not slow down as less than three minutes later, the Blue and White embarked on an 11-5 run, paced by five points from Nwugwo, to expand their lead to 23, 40-17, with 4:09 left in the opening stanza.
• The two sides traded scores the remainder of the half with Daemen ahead 45-26 after 20 minutes of action.
• Out of the halftime break, Daemen continued to roll as the opened the half with a 13-4 run, sparked by a driving layup from graduate student guard
Matt Becker (Fairfield, Conn.) to command a 58-32 lead with 12:10 left in the contest.
• The 'Cats never let their lead slip below 20 for the remainder of the contest, going up by as much as 34 on three separate occasions en route to their 88-56 win.
• Daemen ended the evening shooting 36-of-66 (.545) overall and 7-of-16 (.438) from deep. The 'Cats dominated in the post as they totaled 52 points in the paint compared to 30 for D'Youville and outrebounded their crosstown rivals, 50-27. The 'Cats bench also led the way as they accounted for 52 points while the Saints bench only notched 18 scores of their own.
• D'Youville shot 22-of-62 (.355) from the floor and only 4-of-24 (.174) from beyond the arc.
GAME NOTES
• Entering today, Daemen was ranked No. 2 in the most recent National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) National Poll and No. 4 from the newest D2CSC National Poll.
• Daemen is now 14-0 against D'Youville with the series dating back to the 1998-99 campaign.
• Ahead of today's game, Bill was named the East Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Week, the ECC announced Jan. 13. The center has five total weekly honors this season, the most of any player in the conference so far this year, as he was named the ECC Player of the Week on three occasions (Dec. 2, 9, 23) and the ECC Defensive Player of the Week twice (Dec. 9 & Jan. 13).
• Philipkoski has now scored 43 points across his last two games. The sophomore guard had a then season-high 21 points at Queens.
• Daemen has now won four games by 15-or-more points dating back to Jan. 3 at Franklin Pierce
• The 'Cats held an opponent to less than 60 points for the second time in three games and ninth time this season.
• Nwugwo finished in double-figures in scoring for the first time this season and third time in his career with his 11 points.
• Daemen had five-or-more players finish with 10-or-more points for the first time since Dec. 15 against Mercy.
• No member of the Daemen squad played above 25 minutes in the win.
UP NEXT
The 'Cats will close their short two game homestand with a test against nationally ranked No. 21/7 Gannon on Jan. 18. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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.
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