AMHERST, NY - The Darmen Wildcats earned a share of the American Mideast Conference regular season title today with an 87-67 beatdown of the visiting Point Park Pioneers at Lumsden Gymnasium. With the win, Daemen improves to 18-10 overall and 10-2 in conference play, tying Walsh for the regular season conference championship. Point Park drops to 13-11 overall and 6-6 in conference play.

"Our bench was fantastic tonight," said Daemen head coach Don Silveri, alluding to his reserve production as Daemen outscored the Pioneers 29-14 off the bench. "We had some guys step up and we were much better on the backboard in the second half - that's why we won the game."

Senior Dom Mazzocchi and sophomore Casey Sheehan had double-doubles to lead the way for Daemen. Mazzocchi canned 22 points to go with a career high 14 rebounds while Sheehan notched 17 points and a career best 14 assists, eight of which came in the first half.

With Daemen leading 36-27 late in the first half, Point Park closed the frame on a 13-2 run to take a 40-38 lead into intermission. The Wildcats employed a 19-6 spurt to open the second half to take control.

After the visitors cut the Daemen lead under double figures at 57-48 with 12:19 left, Daemen raced back out by 15 and led by as many as 23 points late in the half.

Chandler Williams struck for nine points in a starting role for Daemen in his final regular season home game. Off the bench, freshman Gerald Beverly had three monster dunks en route to 13 points along with six rebounds. Sophomore Troy Nowak gave Daemen nine points in a reserve role as well.

Daemen hosts fourth-seeded Roberts Wesleyan in the AMC Semis on Tuesday, Feb. 21 at 7:30pm.