Daemen Men's Basketball Remains at No. 1 for Second Consecutive Week

Release courtesy of Daemen University Sports Information AMHERST, NY – For the second consecutive week, the Daemen University men's basketball team was ranked No. 1 in the country as they topped the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) National Poll with 391 points and 11 of a possible 16 first-place votes. Additionally, the Wildcats held their No. 2 ranking in the latest Division II College Sports Communicators (D2CSC) National Poll  with 302 points and five first-place votes.  One of two undefeated teams left across all of Division I, II and III along with Wesleyan (Ct.) (Division III), the Wildcats topped the NABC poll for the second consecutive week. Sitting close below the Wildcats with 388 points and five first-place votes is Nova Southeastern (Sunshine State) while Alabama Huntsville (GSC) closed out the top three with 371 points. Daemen is the first Division I or II school from New York to be ranked No. 1 for two-or-more consecutive weeks since Division I Syracuse was ranked No. 1 in three consecutive AP Polls from Feb. 3 - Feb. 17, 2014.  Within the D2CSC charts, Nova Southeastern was ranked No. 1 for the second consecutive week with 319 points and seven first-place votes, just edging out the Wildcats 302 points and five first-place votes. Washburn (MIAA) rounded out the top three with 295 points and remaining first-place vote.  This season under head coach Mike MacDonald, Daemen has continued to lead the country in field goal percentage defense at .370. The Wildcats currently rank second nationally in both bench points per game (39.5), rebound margin (11.0) and scoring margin (22.6). Additionally, the 'Cats scoring defense currently is third in the country for scoring defense (62.3) and fifth in assists per game (19.3). Individually, redshirt sophomore center Benjamin Bill (Hamburg, N.Y.) leads the ECC and ranks second nationally in field goal percentage (.717) while graduate student guard Matt Becker (Fairfield, Conn.) leads the conference in assist/turnover ratio at 2.41.  Daemen returns home to Lumsden Gymnasium to face rival Roberts Wesleyan University in their regular season finale next Saturday, March 1 with tip-off slated for 4 p.m. The Wildcats be bidding to become the first ECC team to make it through the regular season undefeated since C.W. Post did so in 2008-09. 
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