AMHERST, N.Y. - Senior guard/forward Torrence Dyck (Rochester, N.Y./San Jacinto College) scored 20 first-half points in leading the Daemen College men's basketball team to an insurmountable 24-point halftime lead, as the Wildcats took down visiting Mercy College, 94-81, in East Coast Conference action today at Lumsden Gymnasium.

The win propels Daemen back to .500 overall on the season (6-6), and within a game of evening their ECC mark (2-3).  Mercy suffers its second-straight loss on its annual swing through Western New York to fall to 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the league.  The Mavericks also fell to Roberts Wesleyan College (72-65) in Rochester last evening.

Dyck was a man amongst boys on the court today, finishing with a season-high 30 points - the third 30-point game of his career.  The silky smooth 6-foot-5 wing player connected on 9-of-12 field goal attempts, including a career-best 5-of-6 from three-point range, while also adding five rebounds.

He was backed up by sophomore guard Nick Petrucelli (Hicksville, N.Y./Thomasville Prep) who got hot early, scoring 10 points over a four-minute span early in the game, en route to 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting.  The 6-foot-3 Long Island native went 2-for-5 from three-point range, and has now made eight triples in the last three games after connecting on just two in the Wildcats' first nine games of the season.  Petrucelli made his eighth consecutive start today as he continues to fill in for the injured Supreme Hannah (Rochester, N.Y./Eastridge).  In those eight starts, Petrucelli has four games of double-figure scoring and is averaging 11 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.

Arif Mehmetaj (Jamaica, N.Y./SUNY Delhi) was saddled by foul trouble but still managed to chip in 13 points in just 19 minutes.  In his absence, reserve big man Alex Borges (Erie, Pa./Mercyhurst Prep) gave solid minutes off the bench, totaling four points, five boards and a block.  

Another underrated performance came from redshirt-freshman Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) who stepped into the starting lineup for the first time in his career as regular starter Ryan Grandits (Kenmore, N.Y./Medaille College) was forced out of the lineup with an injury.  After playing 44 total minutes in Daemen's first 11 games of the season, Hamilton responded in his first start with eight points, eight boards and three blocks in 27 minutes.

Isaiah Cosbert came off the bench to knock home 18 points to pace the visitors.  Likewise, Shaquille Stokes came off the pine to notch 15 points, matching the output of starter K.J. Rose.  The Mercy bench outscored Daemen's 43-21 in the contest, but the Daemen starters got the better of their matchup, outscoring Mercy's opening lineup 73-38.

The Wildcats and Mavericks traded buckets in the early going today, before Daemen used a 14-0 spurt to seize control.  Petrucelli accounted for nine points in the run, sparked by his tip-in at the 15:20 mark, and capped by his jumper with 11:54 remining before halftime.  When it was over, a modest 10-9 Daemen lead extended to a 15-point edge (24-11), and Mercy would never get the deficit back to single digits for the remainder of the ballgame.

In fact, the Daemen lead would swell to as many as 26 points later in the period.  Hamilton's second trifecta of the game put the Wildcats ahead 45-19 with 5:01 to play in the opening stanza, and later, Jaleo Wilkes (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Falls) split a pair of freebies to make the lead 51-25 at the 1:11 mark.  The Wildcats ended up with a 53-29 lead at the break after enjoying 55-percent shooting overall (16-for-29), including an 8-for-15 showing (53-percent) from long range in the period.

Mercy would not back down however.  The Mavericks, who came into this weekend's games leading all of NCAA Division II in offensive rebounds per game (17.7), made a concerted effort to attack the offensive glass in the second half after being limited to five offensive boards and six second-chance points in the first 20 minutes.

That aggressiveness resulted in a dwindling of the Daemen lead as Mercy outscored the hosts 15-3 in the opening five minutes of the frame, cutting the deficit to 12 points (56-44).  But, back-to-back triples for Daemen, one from Jesse Lalka (Tonawanda, N.Y./Tonawanda) at the 13:33 mark, and the second from Petrucelli just 40 seconds later, sparked a 10-2 that pushed the lead back to 20 points (66-46) with 11:18 yet to play.

From there, Daemen maintained its comfortable lead throughout the rest of the game.  By the time the Mavericks got it back to a 12-point game (88-76), there was just 1:40 to play.

Mercy ended the game with a 10-point edge in second-chance points (26-16) and a decided rebounding advantage (45-36), including 21 total offensive boards.  But, they could not overcome the solid offensive performance of the Wildcats who shot 53-percent in the game (28-for-53) while also picking up 27 points at the charity stripe, compared to just nine for the guests.

The win today hopefully marked a return to normalcy for the Wildcat faithful at Lumsden Gymnasium.  The Wildcats, who entered the season with an 18-2 record in home ECC contests since 2013-14, had dropped their first two home league games of the season, falling to University of the District of Columbia (89-84 on Dec. 13) and Saint Thomas Aquinas College (85-66 on Jan. 7).

Today's result also moves Daemen to 34-7 in the month of January, including 14-2 at home, since the 2011-12 season.  And, the Wildcats are now 47-2 when scoring 90 points or more since the start of the 2009-10 season.  It was also Daemen's fifth-straight win in the all-time series with Mercy as the Wildcats remain unblemished against the Mavericks.

Daemen looks to carry the momentum of today's win into a pivotal three-game road stretch next week, beginning with the Wildcats' annual trek down I-90 to face thruway rival Roberts Wesleyan next Tuesday night (Jan. 12).  That one is set for an 8 p.m. tip-off from RWC's Voller Athletic Center as Daemen goes for its ninth-straight victory in that all-time series.