COLCHESTER, Vt. - Bolstered by 17 three-pointers, the top-seeded Saint Michael's College men's basketball team booked its spot in the Sweet 16 by taking an 86-62 contest from No. 4 Daemen University in an NCAA Division II East Regional Championship semifinal on Sunday in the Ross Sports Center.
 
The triumph sets up an all-Northeast-10 Conference championship game on Tuesday between the Purple Knights and No. 3 Southern New Hampshire University at 7 p.m., with the victor heading to the Elite Eight in Evansville, Ind., later next week. Saint Michael's will play in its seventh regional final while seeking its first spot in the national quarterfinals since the 1964-65 season.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (24-8), Daemen (25-9)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Junior CJ Crews (Tampa, Fla./Bayshore Christian School), 16 points, 4 assists, 6-for-11 field goals, 4-for-8 three-pointers
• Sophomore Alan Brzezinski (Örebro, Sweden/Western Reserve Academy), 15 points, 4 rebounds, 6-for-8 field goals, 3-for-5 three-pointers
• Sophomore Nolan Marold (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Brewster Academy/Loyola Chicago), 14 points, 10 rebounds, 3 offensive rebounds, 6-for-8 field goals
• Senior Romar Reid (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Woodstock Academy/Manhattan), 14 points, 4 assists, 3 steals, 4-for-7 three-pointers
• Junior Jhamyl Fricas (Lawrence, Mass./Worcester Academy/Connors State), 9 points, 4 assists, 3-for-3 three-pointers
• First-year Sebastian Andersson (Stockholm, Sweden/Korrespondensgymnasiet/Eastern Washington), 6 rebounds, 4 blocks
• Junior Jacob Duniver (Fredericksburg, Va./Woodstock Academy), 5 rebounds, 2 assists

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Senior Dylan Fasoyiro, 12 points, 2 steals
• Fifth-year Nick MacDonald, 10 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
• Senior Andrew Mason, 10 points, 4 rebounds
• Sophomore Justin Glover, 9 points, 4 steals

GAME FACTS

• The Purple and Gold shot 17-for-35 (48.6%) from three-point range, knocking down their highest triples total ever in an NCAA Tournament contest. The hosts shot 53.3% overall to Daemen's 36.2% showing, including 5-of-21 (23.8%) from deep. The Wildcats entered the game averaging 81.9 points on 38.5% three-point shooting.
• The Purple Knights were 22nd in this week's D2CSC national poll and received votes toward the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) rankings.
• Daemen was this year's East Coast Conference (ECC) Championship runner-up.
• The Purple Knights are making their 13th NCAA Tournament appearance, and first since 2000-01. They are 7-5 in regional semifinals, winning for just the second time since 1966-67, having also advanced to the final in 2000-01.
• The Purple and Gold improved to 21-15 in NCAA games, and 41-38 overall in the postseason, including 10-2 as a No. 1 seed. The Purple Knights are 19-5 at home in the postseason, including 6-1 in the NCAA Tournament after losing their initial NCAA contest.
• Saint Michael's won for the second time in five all-time meetings with Daemen, claiming their initial postseason match-up.
• Tuesday's final will be the 10th all-NE10 East Regional title game, as the Purple Knights face Southern New Hampshire for the fourth time this season. The NE10-champion Penmen bounced Saint Michael's from the NE10 Championship with a semifinal victory in the Ross Sports Center on March 6.
• The Purple Knights' win on Sunday was the first in six games at this regional that was not decided by single digits.
• Saint Michael's had its second-largest margin of victory in an NCAA Tournament game, behind only a 97-58 win over Adelphi University in the 1958 Northeast Region final.

THE ACTION

• Marold opened the game on a personal 6-2 run, including dropping home the opening bucket after 57 seconds that gave his team the lead for good.
• Duniver's triple made it 11-2 at 16:26, and Reid's long-range shot pushed the lead to 17-7 by 13:21, before the Purple Knights had even gone to their bench.
• By the time Crews capped a 14-2 run with a three at 9:42, Saint Michael's was ahead by a 28-9 count.
• Crews buried another three, at which point his team was 7-of-13 from deep, at 7:47 before Marold's hoop 56 seconds later produced a 33-13 edge.
• Fasoyiro's pair of free throws with 59 seconds left cut the deficit to 42-31, but sophomore Darrel Yepdo (Dracut, Mass./Brooks School) converted a three-point play 13 seconds later before Brzezinski's jumper at eight seconds sent Saint Michael's into the locker room up 16.
• Brzezinski hit a three 45 seconds into the second stanza, and his trey at 17:17 made it 56-34. The Wildcats never crept within 20 points from there.
• Crews hit a three with 9:37 to go that pushed the lead to 73-43, and the hosts twice led by a game-high 34 - on first-year TJ Henaghen's (Hampden, Maine/Williston Northampton School) corner three at 7:40 and Marold's lay-up 29 seconds later.