AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen Wildcats enjoyed some home cooking after a tough weekend on the road, snapping their two game losing streak by upending the Point Park Pioneers 92-80 at Lumsden Gymnasium.  The Daemen victory also broke Point Park's four-game winning streak and improves the Wildcats to 10-9 overall and 5-3 in American Mideast Conference play.  The Pioneers, who entered the game with the third highest scoring offense in NAIA II at 94.0 points per game, fall to 8-4, 2-2.

The Wildcats used a pair of 11-4 spurts, one to open the game and one to open the second half to establish control.  The second half run opened up a 13-point lead for the Wildcats after leading 42-36 at the break.  

A bucket by Daemen's Mujeeb Oridami at 15:57 of the second half gave Daemen a 14-point lead, their largest edge of the game til that point.  The Pioneers responded with a 20-8 spurt of their own capped by two free throws by Jimmy Sherwood which cut the Daemen advantage to just two at 63-61 with 8:42 to play.

The Wildcats then responded with their own spurt, scoring on their next three possessions with a three-pointer by Dominic Mazzocchi and jumpers from Khorri Silcott and Casey Sheehan.  Two free throws from Moustapha Baidy at 4:14 put the Wildcats up 72-65 and Point Park would not get closer than seven points for the remainder of the game as Daemen pushed their lead back up to double digits.

Mazzocchi led a quintet of Wildcats in double figures with a game-high 21 points.  Oridami added a career-high 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field.

Silcott, the 6'3" senior forward was next with 18 points to go with his usual eight rebounds.

Sheehan was absolutely brilliant in the second half as he put home all 17 of his points in the period.  He narrowly missed a triple-double as he collected eight rebounds and eight assists as well.

Baidy added 10 points and a team-high nine boards in 29 minutes of action.

T.J. Heatherington paced the Pioneers with 20 points, although it took him 20 shot attempts to do so.  Kris Douse, the nation's leading rebounder was hampered by foul trouble but still managed 16 points and 13 boards.

The Daemen defense did the job on Sherwood, the reigning AMC Player of the Week who came in averaging 18.0 points per contest.  He was held to just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting by a slew of Daemen defenders which included Oridami and Mazzocchi as well as freshmen Aaron Davis and Troy Nowak.

The Wildcats will look to make it two in a row when they go for the season sweep of Notre Dame College (OH) this Saturday at the friendly confines of Lumsden Gymnasium.  Tip-off is slated for 4:00pm.