AMHERST, NY - For the first time in six years, the Daemen Wildcats will be playing for an automatic bid to the NAIA Division II National Tournament as they advanced to the American Mideast Conference Tournament Championship with a 65-45 dismantling of fourth-seeded Roberts Wesleyan tonight at Lumsden Gymnasium.  Daemen (19-10), the top seed in the tournament, will play host to second-seeded Wilberforce (13-18) who took down Point Park 91-76 in the other semifinal tonight.  The AMC Championship is set for this Saturday, February 25 with tip-off slated for 4pm.

"Once we settled down and got some of the nerves out tonight, I thought we played pretty good, especially the last 10 or 12 minutes of the first half," said Daemen head coach Don Silveri who has his team one game away from their first national tournament appearance since 2006.  "Defensively, we were awful good all night.  I don't care who you're playing, when you hold someone to 45 points in college basketball that's some good defense."

Daemen looked a bit skittish in the early going as the visitors opened up a 13-6 lead in the game's first 6:20.  Daemen opened the game with just one made field goal in their first seven attempts before eventually settling in.  After Roberts took that early seven-point lead, Daemen responded with a 23-3 run covering almost nine minutes of action.  The Wildcats got points from eight different players in the spurt while the Raiders shot just 1-for-7 while committing six turnovers in that span.  Keying the Daemen spurt was the play of reserve guards Troy Nowak and Devon Dawson as well as reserve forward Chandler Williams.

When senior Dom Mazzocchi hit a 30-foot three-pointer at the first half horn, Daemen led 41-22, outscoring the Raiders 35-9 in the final 12:32 of the half.

The game was all but over at that point.  Roberts temporarily cut in the Wildcat lead at the second half outset, trailing 41-25 on a three by Patrick Downer.  Daemen quickly ran the lead back up to 22, at 51-29 with 13:57 to play on a bucket by Dawson.  From there, Daemen led by as many as 25 points - on two occasions - and Roberts never got the deficit under 20 as the Wildcats cruised to a 20-point win.

Mazzocchi, the reigning AMC Player of the Week, led a balanced scoring effort for the victors with 11 points, all of which came in the opening stanza.  Mazzocchi added six boards, four assists and two steals as well.  Fellow senior Dawson was next with 10 points.  Sophomore Casey Sheehan hit for nine points along with four assists while junior Jim Regan narrowly missed a double-double with eight points and eight rebounds.

Big man Alif Bland fought through constant double-teams to finish with 14 points while grabbing nine rebounds and blocking three shots in his career finale for the Raiders.  Downer contributed 11 points and six boards before fouling out.

Daemen now looks ahead to their date with Wilberforce.  The two teams split their two regular season meetings with each winning on their respective home floors.  Daemen will be looking to avenge its 68-58 loss to the Bulldogs in their last meeting back on Feb. 4.  A plus for Daemen will be hosting the game as they're now 10-1 at home this season, compared to Wilberforce's 4-13 road record.