AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen Wildcats overcame a shaky first half to pick up their sixth consecutive win, scoring a 79-53 victory over American Mideast Conference foe Houghton College tonight at Lumsden Gymnasium.  The win closes out Daemen's season-long five-game homestand and improves the Wildcats to 9-7 on the season as well as 4-1 in conference play.  The Highlanders drop to 4-9, 0-5.

The Wildcats allowed the Highlanders to stick around in the first half as they shot a dreadful 1-for-11 from 3-point range (9%) as well as just 11-for-20 (55%) from the free throw line in the opening stanza.  Houghton took a one-point lead on a free throw by Seth Shay at the 5:37 mark of the first half but the Wildcats established a six-point edge at the half, 36-30.

Daemen took control of the contest with a 20-4 run over the first eight minutes of the second half.  Houghton never got the deficit under 14 for the remainder of the contest.

Sophomore forward Jim Regan enjoyed his third consecutive game in double figures as he pumped in a season-high 18 points which was capped off by a thunderous alley-oop slam off a feed from Dominic Mazzocchi.

Senior forward Khorri Silcott added 17 points and a team-high 12 rebounds while Mazzocchi chipped in with 13 points, six boards and three assists.  Freshman guard Casey Sheehan came off the bench to add nine points and three steals.

Ryan Shay led Houghton with 16 points while teammate Devin Paige added 14 points.  Mike Munoz gathered a game-high 14 rebounds for the Highlanders.

The Wildcats get back at it on Thursday when they travel to Mount Vernon Nazarene for a tough road contest.  Following that the Wildcats play on the road at Cedarville on Saturday before returning home next Tuesday to face Point Park.