AMHERST, N.Y. --  Four members of the No. 4 Daemen University men's basketball team earned All-East Coast Conference accolades and the Wildcats collected three major awards, the league announced on Tuesday afternoon. Junior guard Zach Philipkoski (New Hartford, N.Y.) was named the ECC Player of the Year, redshirt senior forward Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) collected ECC Defensive Player of the Year honors, and head coach Mike MacDonald was named the ECC Coach of the Year. Additional major award winners include District of Columbia's Oliver Spence and D'Youville's Sean Ryan who were each named the Co-Rookies of the Year. 

Philipkoski, Hemphill, and redshirt junior center Benjamin Bill (Hamburg, N.Y.) all earned First Team All-ECC accolades, while senior guard Justin Glover (Buffalo, N.Y.) was named to the Second Team.

This marks the 10th season that the Wildcats have earned a major conference award, and the first time that Daemen has earned Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year in the same season. The Wildcats previously earned Player of the Year and Coach of the Year in 2025 (Benjamin Bill) and 2019 (Andrew Sischo), and earned Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 (Sischo POTY and Sean Fasoyiro DPOTY). 

Leading the Wildcats to another storybook season, head coach Mike MacDonald is named Coach of the Year honors for the third time after guiding Daemen to another undefeated ECC season (16-0) en route to the No. 4 ranked Wildcats' 28-1 record season mark. Daemen became the first ECC team since Philadelphia University (1993-94) to tally back-to-back undefeated conference records. The Wildcats earned their fourth ECC regular season title in program history and has tied the program record for wins (28), set in 2024-25 in Daemen's record-breaking season. Under MacDonald's leadership, the Wildcats have won 38 consecutive ECC regular season games and a 56-2 overall record in the past two seasons. Ranked fourth in the latest NABC coaches' poll, Daemen has been ranked in the top-5 for 26 consecutive polls. 

Zach Philipkoski put together a standout junior campaign to earn ECC Player of the Year honors after leading the Wildcats offensively throughout the year. He is the third Daemen player over six seasons to earn Player of the Year honors (Andrew Sischo in 2019, 20, 21 and 22; Benjamin Bill in 2025). Collecting First Team All-ECC accolades for the first time in his career, Philipkoski leads the Wildcats and ranks fourth in the league with 17.7 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the field (seventh in the ECC). Daemen's biggest threat from beyond the arc, Philipkoski averages 2.3 triples per game (third in the league) and ranks second in the ECC shooting 40 percent from the three-point line. Averaging 7.2 rebounds per game (sixth in the ECC) and 3.7 assists per game (seventh in the ECC), the 6-foot-4 guard recorded four double-doubles this season and scored 20+ points in 12 games, including knocking down a season-high 28 points twice (vs. Staten Island on Jan. 11 and vs. D'Youville on Feb. 22). A three-time ECC Player of the Week and one time ECC Defensive Player of the Week this season, Philipkoski has scored in the double figures in all but two games this season and has been named to the Bevo Francis Top 50 Watch List.

Justin Hemphill continues to impress in his redshirt senior season, becoming the fifth Daemen player to earn ECC Defensive Player of the Year along with earning First Team honors for the second straight season. A five-time ECC Defensive Player of the Week and one-time Player of the Week honoree this season, Hemphill ranks fourth in the conference averaging a team-high 8.5 rebounds per game while adding 11.9 points, 5.2 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.9 steals per game. The Buffalo, N.Y. native recorded his 1,000th career point on Nov. 18 over #5 Fairmont State, becoming the 29th player in team history to reach this milestone. He ranks 15th in points, third in blocked shots and fifth in steals, rebounds and assists among Daemen's all-time leaders. Hemphill is now the only player in program history with at least 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 300 assists. He is presently the only player to rank among the ECC's top five leaders in rebounds (2nd), assists (3rd), blocks (4th) and steals (5th). Hemphill has also posted a team-best nine double-doubles this season, and his 13-point, 11-rebound, 11-assist outing vs. Mercy on Feb. 13 marked the first triple-double by a Daemen player since Dec. 17, 2014 (Gerald Beverly vs. St. Thomas (Fla.)). On Sunday, Hemphill was named to the Trevor Hudgins Top 15 Award Watch List, an award gifted to a player with the most outstanding collegiate career in small college basketball. 

Benjamin Bill earns First Team All-ECC honors for the second year in a row. Returning to the Daemen lineup after earning ECC Player of the Year and consensus All-American honors in 2025, Bill Bill picked up where he left off to begin the season, and was a three-time ECC weekly award recipient (Player of the Week x2, Defensive Player of the Week) early in the year before suffering an injury. The 6-foot-10 center left Daemen's game at Mercy on Dec. 12 and missed the next 11 games. He returned to the lineup Jan. 31 vs. Roberts Wesleyan and reached double figures in five of the last seven games. For the season, Bill is averaging 15.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game, while shooting 66.7 percent from the field and posting seven double-doubles. The Daemen big man was named to the Bevo Francis Top 50 Watch List for the second straight season. 

Justin Glover was named to the Second Team All-ECC for the second consecutive season. In his senior campaign, Glover ranks fourth on the team offensively with 11.4 points per game while shooting 38.8 percent from the field as well as a 37.6 percent three-point shooting percentage. The Buffalo, N.Y. native ranks 5th in the ECC with 2.2 three-point field goals per game, scoring multiple triples in 20 games on the year. Glover has scored in the double digits in 17 matches this season, knocking down a season-high 20 points against Staten Island on Jan. 11. During Daemen's 90-65 win over D'Youville on Jan. 24, Glover became the 30th player in team history to reach the 1,000 point milestone. In his third season as a full-time starter, Glover has appeared in 112 games with 89 starts to his credit, and he now ranks 25th in career scoring (1,081 points) and ninth in career three-pointers (175) among Daemen's all-time leaders.

The top-seeded Wildcats are back in action on Saturday, March 7 as they host the 2026 ECC Tournament at Daemen's Lumsden Gymnasium. Daemen will face the winner of No. 4 Molloy and No. 5 D'Youville in the first of two semifinal games at 5 PM. The winner of both semifinals advances to the ECC Championship game on Sunday, March 8 at 3:30 PM. The Wildcats are the reigning ECC Tournament champions. 

Tickets for Saturday's semifinals will go on sale at 5 PM on Thursday, March 5. Tickets for the final round games will go on sale at 7 AM on Sunday, March 8. All tickets will be sold online here.