AMHERST, N.Y. -- The pairings for the 2026 East Region Challenge presented by Western New York Knee and Orthopedic Surgery PC are set, head coach Ryan Grandits announced on Thursday. The tournament, which takes place at Daemen's Lumsden Gymnasium over the weekend of November 13 and 14, brings together teams from two of the three of the Division II conferences in the NCAA East Region as well as a team from the Atlantic Region. 

This year, Daemen and Roberts Wesleyan University of the East Coast Conference (ECC), Saint Michael's College of the Northeast-10 Conference (NE10), and Gannon University of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) will all be participating in the 2026 East Region Challenge.



The tournament will kick off on Friday, Nov. 13 with Roberts Wesleyan taking on the reigning NCAA Division II National Champions, Gannon, at 5 PM. This is the 10th year that RWU has played in the East Region Challenge while Gannon makes its tournament debut. 

The 7 PM Friday nightcap will be Daemen's home opener as the Wildcats host Saint Michael's in a rematch of the 2026 East Region Semifinals. The host Wildcats have won their last 16 games in this tournament and own an all-time tournament record of 19-1. The Purple Knights join the East Region Challenge for the first time this season.

The matchups flip on Saturday, with Roberts Wesleyan and Saint Michael's squaring up at noon, followed by Daemen and Gannon at 2 PM. The Golden Knights were the only team to hand Daemen a regular season loss in 2025-26. 

After posting a program-record 28-1 record in 2024-25 that saw Daemen at the top of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) rankings for the first time in program history, the Wildcats rebounded from their early exit from the previous postseason and continued their unbeaten regular season record deep into the 2025-26 season, starting the year 20-0 and ranking as high as No. 2 in the nation. Daemen's historic 51-game regular season win streak was snapped in a loss to eventual national champion #10 Gannon on Jan. 21. From there, Daemen rebounded by winning the next 13 match ups, collecting their second straight undefeated ECC regular season (16-0) and won the East Region title for the second time in program history after cruising through the regional tournament with victories of 111-78 (vs. #8 seed Goldey-Beacom), 85-62 (vs. #5 seed Saint Michael's) and 94-68 (vs. #3 seed Saint Anselm in the regional championship) to advance to the Elite Eight where they lost in a three-point heartbreaker, 74-77, to #5 seed Lander on March 25. Daemen finished the historic 2025-26 season with a program-best 33-2 record and the Wildcats' second trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight. Following the end of the season, head coach Mike MacDonald left Daemen to take the head coaching position at St. Bonaventure after an 11-year tenure as the Wildcats bench boss. Shortly after, Daemen named former longtime assistant Ryan Grandits as the seventh head coach in program history. Grandits spent the 2025-26 season as the head coach of Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Grandits inherited a program that has gone 61-3 over the last two seasons, won a pair of ECC titles, gone undefeated in conference play in back-to-back seasons and earned the East Region title for the first time since 2021. The Wildcats return seven players from the 2025-26 campaign. Redshirt senior forward Phil Nwugwo (Rochester, N.Y.) highlights the returners after a breakout redshirt junior season where he finished sixth on the team in scoring, averaging 8.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game along with shooting an impressive 61.9% from the field and totaling 38 blocks defensively. 2025-26 newcomers Nakyhi Harris (Buffalo, N.Y.) and Jaiden Harrison (Buffalo, N.Y.) also return to the team after playing solid minutes in their first season with the Wildcats.

The full 2026-27 schedule will be released later this summer.