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Daemen University Athletics

Western New York's Premier Division II Team
Fearless, Integrity, Effort, Respect, Commitment, Excitement
mbb vs molloy 2.18.17
73
Winner Molloy MOLM 15-10, 11-5 ECC
71
Daemen DAEM 16-8, 10-6 ECC
Winner
Molloy MOLM
15-10, 11-5 ECC
73
Final
71
Daemen DAEM
16-8, 10-6 ECC
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Molloy MOLM 34 39 73
Daemen DAEM 40 31 71

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Mike Miranto, Associate A.D. For Communications

Daemen Falls To Molloy In Waning Seconds Again

Late Molloy Three-Pointer Delivers Lions' Second Buzzer-Beating Win Over Daemen This Season

AMHERST, N.Y. - Senior guard Charlie Marquardt (Rockaway Beach, N.Y.) nailed a step-back three-pointer with 4.4 seconds remaining to deliver a 73-71 victory for Molloy College in a key East Coast Conference men's basketball game against Daemen College at Lumsden Gymnasium today.

Daemen led 71-70 following a jumper by senior guard Jaleo Wilkes (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Polk State College) with 32 seconds remaining, and the Wildcats got an initial stop on the ensuing Molloy possession, but a held ball was whistled with the possession arrow pointing in Molloy's favor.  The inbounds pass came to Marquardt, one of the ECC's top three-point assassins; he shook free from a Daemen defender with a step-back dribble, rose up and with a flick of the wrist put the Lions on top by two.  Following a Daemen timeout, a desperation attempt by Supreme Hannah (Rochester, N.Y./Eastridge) was off the mark sending the Lions into celebration mode.

It was a big win for the Lions (15-10, 11-5 ECC) as they broke a third-place tie with Daemen (16-8, 10-6 ECC) in the ECC standings to sit just a half game behind idle University of Bridgeport (16-9, 11-4 ECC).  Molloy, which has played the toughest schedule in the ECC this season (five of their 10 losses have come against regionally-ranked opponents), picked up their first-ever win at Lumsden Gymnasium where they had been outscored by an average of 23.3 points in three all-time meetings here prior to today.  It was also Molloy's second win in the waning seconds against Daemen this season, having scored a 78-75 win back on Jan. 14 at Quealy Gymnasium.  Senior center Mike Guzzardi (Mount Sinai, N.Y.) completed an old-fashioned three-point play with 0.5 seconds remaining in that one.

After posting a season-best six-game winning streak from from mid-January through early-February, Daemen has now dropped two straight contests for the first time since a four-game slide from Nov. 27 through Dec. 10.  The Wildcats are not mathematically eliminated from reaching second place in the final league standings, but they'll have to climb over Molloy and Bridgeport to do so.

Marquardt finished with 19 points, eight steals and six rebounds, but his late heroics wouldn't have been possible without the play of fellow senior Jaylen Morris (Amherst, N.Y.) who scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half.  Morris came into today's contest as the ECC's leading scorer, averaging 20.3 points per game.  When he shot 0-for-3 from the field and was saddled with foul trouble in the first half, it looked as if he would be headed for another tough game while playing in his hometown (7.7 ppg, 30% FG in three career games here coming into today).  But, the 6-foot- 5 wing player broke out by shooting 9-for-12 in the second half, while adding a team-high eight rebounds in the game.

Freshman guard Nick Corbett (Staten Island, N.Y.) finished with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting while playing the full 40 minutes.  Sophomore guard Curtis Jenkins (Farmingdale, N.Y.) made just his third start of the season and produced 10 points, eight boards and two blocks.

The loss spoiled a tremendous individual effort from Daemen's Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) who scored 22 points (two shy of his career-high) on 8-of-14 shooting while adding eight rebounds.  It ended up being just Daemen's second loss this season when Hamilton shoots 50 percent from the field or better (11-2 in those games).  He's now scored in double figures 18 times this season, including the last six games in a row.

Hamilton teamed with Wilkes (13 points on 5-of-10 shooting) in leading Daemen to a 39-3 advantage in points off the bench today.   Wilkes has scored in double figures in three of the last five games.

Redshirt-senior forward Arif Mehmetaj (Jamaica, N.Y./SUNY Delhi) finished with 14 points, six rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals for the Wildcats today.  Hannah narrowly missed double figures with nine points, and Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia) was held in check offensively (1-for-6 shooting) but managed to haul in a career-high 10 rebounds.

Molloy led for all of 19 seconds in the first half, and Daemen closed the period on a 12-6 spurt to lead 40-34 at intermission.  Hamilton and Mehmetaj combined for eight points in the run.

After Molloy scored the first five points of the second half to pull within one (40-39), Daemen engineered a quick 8-0 spurt of their own to open up their largest lead of the game at 48-39.  Mehmetaj's old-fashioned three-point play at the 18:13 mark started the run which was capped by Hamilton's long-distance triple less than 40 seconds later.  But, with Molloy on the verge of a collapse, the Lions emerged from a timeout and scored the next seven points to keep themselves in the game.  Eventually, Molloy forged ahead 56-55 on a layup by Guzzardi at the 12:01 mark.

Daemen led by five (63-58) at the under-eight-minute media timeout which came with 6:53 to play.  But, Daemen misfired on two straight field goal attempts and the front-end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity, allowing Molloy to score six unanswered to reclaim the lead (64-63) on a Corbett layup with 4:38 left.  It was the first of six lead changes in the final five minutes of the game.

Daemen would jump back ahead on a Wilkes jumper at the 3:15 mark, and the teams went scoreless until Hannah converted a pair of free throws with 1:56 to go, putting Daemen ahead by three (69-66).  Molloy scored the next four points - a layup by Morris followed by two free throws from Corbett with 45.1 seconds remaining to go up 70-69.  That set the stage for Wilkes' go-ahead jumper in the final minute, followed by the ice-in-the-veins game-winner by Marquardt.

Molloy shot 42.4 percent from the field (28-for-66), and turned 12 Daemen turnovers in a 16-6 advantage in points off miscues.  Many of the Wildcat errors resulted in run-outs for the Lions who also forged a 19-7 edge in fast-break points.  Molloy committed just seven turnovers in the game.

Daemen shot 53.3 percent in the first half (16-for-30), but was held to just 37.9 percent in the second (11-for-29).

The loss snapped Daemen's six-game home winning streak as the Wildcats fall to 12-2 at Lumsden Gymnasium this season.  It was also just the sixth home loss in ECC play since Daemen joined the league back in the 2013-14 season (32-6 in home ECC games).  Daemen is now 68-10 at home since the start of the 2011-12 season.

Daemen looks to right the ship when it hosts Queens College in the penultimate game of the regular season, and the team's final regular season home game on Wednesday, Feb. 22.  Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. and it will follow a brief pre-game ceremony honoring the team's five seniors.
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