CANTON, Ohio - The Daemen Wildcats came up with a huge road win on Saturday as they knocked off #17 Malone 86-69 before 620 rowdy fans at Osborne Hall in Canton, OH.  Daemen's reserves stepped up their game as they pumped in 44 points off the bench, out-playing Malone's usually steady bench (22 points) in the process.  Daemen improves to 11-10, 6-4 on the season and they pick up their second win of the season vs. a top 25 ranked opponent.  Malone drops to 15-7, 8-2.

The Wildcats, still stinging from their home loss last Saturday to Notre Dame (OH), set out to make ammends vs. Malone as they jumped out to a 33-10 lead with Daemen reserves Jim Regan, Troy Nowak and Kadeem Johnson combining for 22 points during the run.

Malone would respond as they closed the half on a 27-9 spurt to cut the Daemen lead to 42-37 at the half.

Daemen opened the second half with a 6-2 run to lead 49-38 as senior Mujeeb Oridami came alive with two buckets after a quiet first half.  Malone again regrouped and cut the Daemen lead to just two at 48-46 on a three-pointer by freshman Che Richardson at the 17:00 minute mark.  

From there, the Wildcats went on a 19-5 run, again with their reserves playing a prominent role, to lead 67-51 with 7:22 to play.  Malone cut the Daemen lead to 11 on a lay-up by Isiah Elliott but the Wildcats connected on 11-of-12 from the charity stripe in the final two minutes to seal the win.

Regan paced the Wildcats with a team-high 17 points to go with nine rebounds and two blocked shots.  Oridami came through with 14 points as did fellow senior Khorri Silcott.  Silcott added a game-high 11 rebounds, as Daemen won the battle of the boards 46-41, along with a team-high four assists.

Nowak and Johnson, both freshman, came up huge off the Daemen bench as they canned 11 points apiece on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor.  The effort marked Johnson's second double figure scoring game of the season and first since Daemen's season-opening 88-44 drubbing of Maine-Fort Kent.  Nowak notched his fourth double figure scoring effort of the season and first since a win vs. Wilfrid Laurier (ON) on December 21.  In addition to their offensive production, the pair combined for eight rebounds and led a suffocating Wildcat defense that limited the nationally-ranked Pioneers to their third-lowest scoring total of the season and just 31% shooting (20-for-64) for the contest.  Daemen also forced 18 Pioneer turnovers and converted those into 27 points.

Elliott led the way for Malone with a game-high 21 points.  All-American candidate Eric Coblentz added 11, but the sharp-shooter was held to 3-of-14 shooting from the field.

The Wildcats will try to keep the momentum rolling as they look for some retribution when they host Mount Vernon Nazarene and Cedarville this coming weekend.  Both teams knocked off Daemen in early January on their respective home floors.  First up is the Cougars of Mount Vernon Nazarene with tip time scheduled for 7:30pm Friday night.