Ben Bill, a Hamburg High graduate and a center on the Daemen men’s basketball team, is the East Coast Conference’s player of the year. The ECC announced its all-conference teams Thursday. Daemen coach Mike MacDonald was named coach of the year as the Wildcats are 25-0 and No. 1 in the NABC Division II coaches poll. They enter the ECC Tournament semifinals at 5 p.m. Saturday against Staten Island at Lumsden Gymnasium. The winner advances to the ECC title game at 3:30 p.m. Sunday against either Queens or St. Thomas Aquinas. The ECC Tournament champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Bill, a 6-foot-10 redshirt sophomore, is Daemen's first player to be named ECC player of the year since 2022, when Andrew Sischo earned his fourth honor from the conference. Bill leads the Wildcats in scoring (16.8 points per game) and is fourth in the conference in scoring. Bill also is averaging 7.4 rebounds per game and has blocked 48 shots. In addition to Bill, three Daemen players earned all-ECC honors: forward Justin Hemphill, a Cardinal O’Hara graduate, and guard Justin Glover, a St. Joe’s graduate, are second-team selections, and guard Zach Philipkoski is a third-team selection. Daemen women's basketball coach Jenepher Banker is the ECC women's coach of the year as the Wildcats are 19-7 and went 15-1 in the ECC. Daemen faces Molloy at noon Saturday in a conference semifinal at Lumsden Gymnasium, and the winner advances to Sunday's ECC final with a berth in the NCAA Division II tournament at stake. Daemen's Claire Pikett, a Holland graduate, is a first-team All-ECC selection, Danielle DiCintio a second-team selection and Ne'Veah Buntley a third-team selection.