Preview: East Titans Clash as STAC Meets Daemen in All-ECC Regional Final Tuesday

Final	1	2	T
Daemen (10-5,7-2 ECC)	37	34	71
St. Thomas Aquinas (14-2,9-1 ECC)	34	36	70

Game Leaders

Daemen

Pts: Andrew Sischo - 25

Reb: Andrew Sischo - 13

Ast: Sean Fasoyiro - 4

St. Thomas Aquinas

Pts: Osbel Caraballo - 21

Reb: 2 Players (#02, #15) - 6

Ast: Louis Griffith - 3

Team Stats

Daemen

St. Thomas Aquinas

Field Goals

(24-48)

(30-63)

Field Goal %

50.0%

47.6%

Rebounds

Assists

Turnovers

Pts off Turnovers

2nd Chance Pts

Pts in the Paint

Fastbreak Pts

Bench Pts

full stats

Posted: Mar 15, 2021

The St. Thomas Aquinas College men's basketball team will be playing Daemen College in the Championship Game of the NCAA Tournament East Region on Tuesday at 7:00 pm at the Albany Capital Center in Albany, NY.

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Click Here for East Regional Tournament Central

By the time the top teams in the East Region square off on Tuesday night in Albany, only 15 teams in the nation will remain in the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship, with the West final taking place Monday night. By the numbers, the first round byes proved to be a solid advantage with six of eight teams winning from both the top and No. 2 slots. Five of the eight regional finals will feature the top two seeds squaring off, including the East. Here are the final matchups in each of the eight regions:

West - #2 Colorado School of Mines (17-2) vs. #5 Northwest Nazarene (13-4) (Monday)

East - #1 St. Thomas Aquinas (14-1) vs. #2 Daemen (9-5)

Atlantic - #1 Hillsdale (21-2) vs. #3 West Liberty (17-4)

Central - #1 Northern State (17-1) vs. #2 Northwest Missouri State (24-2)

Midwest - #1 Truman (19-2) vs. #2 Michigan Tech (14-7)

South - #1 Flagler (16-2) vs. #2 Alabama Huntsville (15-3)

Southeast - #2 Lincoln Memorial (17-3) vs. #4 Emmanuel (GA) (17-6)

South Central - #1 West Texas A&M (16-2) vs. #2 Lubbock Christian (16-2)

Note - The final teams in the Elite Eight will be re-seeded after the regionals.

How They Got Here- After earning first round byes as the region's top two seeds, East Coast Conference Tournament finalists STAC (14-1) and Daemen (9-5) will square off for the fourth time this season after dispatching their semifinal foes from the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), setting up the first-ever all-ECC East Final. The Spartans started the night by reeling off the first 10 points and led by as many as 33 in cruising to a 95-72 victory. Daemen met some first half resistance before pulling away by as many as 26 points in an 81-69 win over #3 seed and CACC Champs Bloomfield.

The Match-Up- While STAC has won five of the past six ECC Tournament titles, Daemen has risen into the ranks of conference titans along with the Spartans and Bridgeport. With UB opting out this season, the regional finalists have already met three times this season, with each putting a dent in the other's record. All three games were played at Aquinas Hall with the Spartans taking two-of-three; the losses to STAC were the only ones for the Wildcats in their final nine games while St. Thomas Aquinas suffered its lone setback against Daemen.

Saturday, February 27 - Daemen 84, @STAC 81 (OT) - STAC led the tight contest by eight points with four minutes left in regulation before the visitors rallied for the overtime win, paced by Andrew Sischo's 28 points, 13 rebounds and some clutch three-point shooting from freshman Ryan Salzberg. Osbel Caraballo led the Spartans with 27 points, 12 rebounds.

Sunday, February 28 - @ STAC 71, Daemen 68 - With both teams showing the effects from the previous day's grueling struggle, it was Daemen's turn to hold the eight point edge with under six minutes left in search of the sweep before STAC returned the favor, closing the game with a 9-2 run to grab a 71-68 triumph. Grant Singleton scored 10 of his team-high 20 points in the frantic final minutes to lead the hosts, with Sischo as usual leading Daemen with 26 points, 10 boards.

Sunday, March 7 - ECC Tournament Championship - @#1 STAC 83, #2 Daemen 67 - The Wildcats held a two-point lead with seven minutes remaining in a back-and-fourth first half before STAC exploded with a 21-6 run before intermission, building a 21-point second-half gap in taking their fifth ECC Tournament title in six years. Demetre Roberts reeled off 23 points to lead the Spartans and Tournament MVP Singleton added 20, while ECC Player-of-the-Year Sischo posted 27 for Daemen.

Spartans in the Post-Season – The Spartans have advanced to the ECC Finals in seven of the past eight seasons under three-time ECC Coach-of-the-Year Tobin Anderson, with five Tournament Championships in the past six seasons; the only ones in program history. In the Division II era, STAC is now 16-7 in playoff competition (all in the past eight years under Anderson), with a 13-3 mark (including 10 wins in their last 11 postseason games) in ECC Tournament action, 7-3 in NCAA East Regional play, and 0-1 at the Elite Eight. Tonight’s game marks the first time that St. Thomas Aquinas will meet an ECC foe in NCAA Tourney competition, and they now hold winning records against the CACC (2-1) and the Northeast-10 (5-2) conference.

What's Next? - The winner of this evening's game will will be crowned as the East Region Champion, with St. Thomas Aquinas in search of is second such title (2017) and Daemen looking for its first. The winner will advance to the NCAA Elite Eight, which will be held at The Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana from March 24-27.

NOTES

Zack Back in STAC Attack - The enormous sigh of relief coming from the vicinity of Albany on Sunday night was likely from STAC grad student Zachary Rzewnicki. After becoming a key part of the Spartans rotation during the previous two seasons, Rzewnicki was forced to miss all of last season due to injury. He was in the 2021 opening day starting lineup on February 3 when the Spartans traveled to Molloy, but suffered a different injury after just three minutes, forcing him to the sidelines until Sunday's Regional Semi-final against Caldwell. The 6-4 guard finally got on the scoresheet with a jumper at the 16:34 mark of the second half, accounting for his first points since March 19, 2019, in the Spartans' last Regional Final appearance at St. Anselm.

Another Weapon in the Arsenal? - STAC's already-stellar lineup was buoyed by the early-season transfer from Queens of All-Conference standout Elijah Bovell, who averaged 17.5 points per game for the Knights, who opted out this season. Bovell netted 18 points in his debut in Spartan Gold in a February 6 blowout over Mercy, but struggled from the floor thereafter while providing stellar defense and quickness. The senior guard's play was limited on Sunday as STAC pulled away against Caldwell but he needed just 15 minutes to record 13 points - his highest total since that first game - on 5-of-7 shooting, a good sign for a team that will need his contributions as they look to continue their post-season run.

Speaking of Depth... - As St. Thomas Aquinas pulled away early in the second half against Caldwell, Coach Tobin Anderson was afforded the opportunity to give everyone a taste of NCAA Tournament action. A total of 13 different players hit the floor, with all but one seeing at least 10 minutes of action. In addition, 11 of the 13 hit the scoring column, with each accounting for at least one field goal.