AMHERST, N.Y. - With the Daemen University men's basketball team set to face the Syracuse Orange at the JMA Wireless Dome on Friday. October 27, the Daemen Division of Athletics, in collaboration with the Offices of Institutional Advancement and Alumni Relations, will host a pregame gathering beginning at 4 p.m. for all Wildcat fans at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel and Conference Center.
Tickets are on sale now through Friday, October 20 for the event at
daemenwildcats.com/daemenatthedome. With the purchase of a $15 ticket, attendees can expect light food service as well as one drink ticket. A cash bar is also available, and the first 50 people to purchase tickets will receive a commemorative Daemen at the Dome t-shirt.
The Sheraton Syracuse Hotel and Conference Center is located at 801 University Avenue, just a short ways away from the JMA Wireless Dome. Attendees of the pregame gathering are afforded the option to park at the hotel and make a short 10-minute walk to the game.
Please note that tickets to the game are sold separately at
cuse.com/ticketing.
It will mark the second time that Daemen has faced Syracuse in an exhibition game. The teams previously met prior to the 2019-20 season, with the Orange posting a 90-71 victory before nearly 6,000 spectators. Daemen teams have squared off against several Division I opponents in exhibitions games during MacDonald's tenurs, including Canisius, Siena, Buffalo and Penn. An 83-81 overtime win over Canisius in MacDonald's Daemen coaching debut (Nov. 11, 2014) remains the highlight of the bunch for Wildcat fans.
The Wildcats will return all five starters and a total of 13 players from their 2022-23 team which went 20-8 overall and 12-4 in the East Coast Conference. Daemen has posted at least 20 wins in five of the last six seasons (Daemen only played 16 games during the COVID-19 shortened 2020-21 season) and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament in 2019, 2020 and 2021--claiming its first-ever NCAA East Region title and advancing to the Division II "Elite Eight" in 2021.
Questions about the pregame fan gathering can be directed to Mike Miranto, senior associate athletics director for communications and operations, by calling 716-839-8385 or emailing
mmiranto@daemen.edu.
Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
