Champions at Last! No. 1/2 Daemen Secures First ECC Men's Basketball Championship with 88-80 Win over No. 2 STAC

Recap courtesy of Max Sacco, Daemen University Sports Information AMHERST, NY – Champions at last! For the first time in program history, the No. 1/2 Daemen University men's basketball team secured the East Coast Conference Men's Basketball Championship title as they downed longtime postseason nemesis St. Thomas Aquinas, 88-80, in the ECC Men's Basketball Championship Game Sunday afternoon at Lumsden Gymnasium.   The Wildcats remained undefeated and improved to 27-0 while the Spartans dropped to 23-9. Today also marked the 'Cats first postseason win against STAC in program history as well.     IMPACT PLAYERS • Redshirt sophomore forward Benjamin Bill (Hamburg, N.Y.) led Daemen with 23 points and notched a game-high three blocks • Redshirt senior forward Justin Hemphill (Buffalo, N.Y.) poured in 21 points while knocking down 10 shots to propel the Daemen offense. The forward collected his team-leading ninth double-double of the year with 10 boards and seven assists. His performances over both games netted him ECC Championship Most Outstanding Player honors as well. • Graduate student guard Andrew Mason (Webster, N.Y) tallied 14 points and knocked down a game-high four 3-pointers while junior guard Justin Glover (Buffalo, N.Y.) added 10 points of his own. • Derrick James led STAC with 18 points while Hartnel Haye grabbed a team-high nine rebounds in the loss.   INSIDE THE BOX SCORE • The Wildcats stormed out of the gates, scoring 11 of the first 17 points of the contest with Mason leading the early scoring charge with seven points. • Both sides were caught in a deadlock for the remainder of the half as they exchanged scores with Daemen clinging to a 40-35 lead after 20 minutes of action. • Out of the halftime break, the Spartans continued to chip away at the Daemen lead as they cut it to just three, 47-44, with 16:36 to play. However, a Mason free-throw make opened a 12-4 spurt for Daemen that saw them expand their lead to 11, 59-48, with 12:29 remaining. • The Wildcats continued to attack the Spartans and pushed their lead to a game-high 16, 75-59, with 6:04 left. • St. Thomas Aquinas attempted to stun the Wildcats as they trimmed the Daemen lead down to just three, 83-80, with 41 seconds left. However, the visitors last push was shut down as the Wildcats sealed the game with five free-throw makes over the final 40 seconds to win, 88-80 and secure the programs first ECC Championship. • Daemen ended the afternoon shooting 33-of-61 (.541) overall and owned a 19-9 advantage in assists. The Wildcats also outscored the visitors in the paint by a 54-36 margin. • The Spartans shot .426 (29-of-68) overall and held a 40-32 edge in rebounds. STAC was also issued two technical fouls while Daemen had none.    GAME NOTES • Today marked the 36th all-time meeting between the Wildcats and Spartans and fifth consecutive meeting between the two longtime rivals in the title game. • Today was the first time in program history that Daemen hosted the ECC Men's Basketball Championship Final. • Daemen remains perfect in home ECC Postseason games at 7-0. • Hemphill was one point shy of his career-high in scoring with 22 points which he set on Dec. 21 at St. Michael's. • The Wildcats are the first team to win their first championship since Molloy collected their first title in 2019. • Daemen only tallied five 3-pointers compared to three for STAC. Of Daemen's five triples, four came from Mason. • Bill has now scored 10-or-more points in nine consecutive games. • Mason and Bill were also tabbed to the all-tournament team as well for their performances this weekend.  • Bill and Hemphill are the first combo of Daemen players to score 20-or-more points in the same game since Dylan Fasoyiro (23 points) and Joey Atkins (20 points) accomplished the feat against the District of Columbia on Feb. 22, 2024.   UP NEXT Daemen will prepare for the NCAA East Regional with the first game set for March 15. The opponent and the Wildcats seed will be revealed later tonight.
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