#1 No. 1/2 Daemen Men's Basketball Advances to Second Round with Victory over #8 Bridgeport

AMHERST, NY – The Daemen bench provided 35 points, led by a combined 23 tallies from redshirt sophomores Phil Nwugwo (Rochester, N.Y.) and Benjamin Bill (Hamburg, N.Y.), to help propel the top-seeded No. 1/2 Daemen University men's basketball team over #8 seed Bridgeport, 80-68, in the first round of the 2025 NCAA East Regional held at Lumsden Gymnasium on the campus of Daemen University.   Daemen improved to 28-0 and set the new "Modern Era" program record for wins in a single season. As for Bridgeport, who are members of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, they end the year with a 19-13 record.    IMPACT PLAYERS • Guard Justin Glover (Buffalo, N.Y.) and Ryan Salzberg (Manlius, N.Y.) led Daemen with 13 points each with Glover also going a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. • Nwugwo Rochester, N.Y dropped a season-high 12 points off the bench in the winning effort. • Bill provided 11 points of his own from the bench to help the Daemen offense. • On the glass, graduate student guard Matt Becker (Fairfield, Conn.) tied his season-high in rebounds with 10. He set his season high against another CACC Connecticut school against Post (Nov. 23). • Graduate student guard Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y.) dished out a team-best four assists as well. • Aliou Cisse provided a team-best 16 points for the Purple Knights while Justin Hendrick grabbed a team-best six rebounds.     INSIDE THE BOX SCORE • Caught in a back-and-forth affair to open the game, the Wildcats gained some breathing room as a free-throw make from sophomore guard Zach Philipkoski (New Hartford, N.Y.) unleashed a half-best 21-4 run for Daemen that featured eight different players scoring, to propel the Wildcats to a 30-16 lead with 5:25 to play. • The Purple Knights, however, were able to cut into the Daemen lead as they scored 15 of the final 23 points of the opening half to make it a 38-31 game after 20 minutes of action. •  After once again trading scores to begin the second half, the Wildcats gained some distance as a pair of Bill free-throw makes spurred a short 7-0 spurt for the Wildcats to put them up 12, 49-37, with 13:19 to play. • Bridgeport attempted to cut in the Wildcats lead as they trimmed it down to six, 51-45, with 11:13 to play. However, the 'Cats survived the scare as they responded with another 7-2 run, paced by scores from Nwugwo and sophomore Ryan Heath (Rochester, N.Y.) to go up double-digits again, 57-45, with 9:21 to play. • The Wildcats never let Bridgeport get to within five for the remainder of the game and went up by as much as 17 en route to their 80-68 victory. • Daemen ended the day shooting 28-of-54 (.519) overall and went 6-of-14 (.429) from beyond the arc. Daemen also owned a slim 35-33 edge on the glass as well. • Bridgeport shot .433 (26-of-60) as a team and went 8-of-19 (.421) from deep.   GAME NOTES • Today marked the 18th all-time meeting between the Wildcats and Purple Knights. It also marked the first contest between the two in the NCAA Tournament as their original matchup in the 2020 NCAA East Regional was canceled due to COVID-19. • There were a combined 38 fouls in the game. 16 were issued to Daemen and 22 were awarded to Bridgeport. • Bill has now finished with 10-or-more points in 10 consecutive games. • Today was the fifth sell-out of the year for Daemen and third consecutive sold-out game. • Nwugwo finished in double-figures for the fourth time in his collegiate career and second time at Daemen. • The 'Cats are now 3-0 against the CACC this year.   UP NEXT Daemen will play the winner of #4 Pace and #5 St. Thomas Aquinas tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the second round of the NCAA East Regional.   
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