Box Score AMHERST, NY - Junior guard Ellie Allen (Amherst, NY/Sweet Home HS) pumped in a career-best 26 points and fellow junior Chelsea Andorka (Canton, OH/Central Catholic HS) added 21 to lead the Daemen Wildcats past the visiting Ryerson Rams 67-61 this afternoon.  With the win, Daemen sweeps their opening weekend of action and moves to 3-0 on the young season.

A sluggish start saw the Wildcats down by six (22-16) with 8:35 to go in the first first half. From there, Daemen went on an extended run, outscoring the Rams 22-6 to end the half with a 10-point edge, 38-28.  

Ryerson responded to open the second half.  After a bucket by Daemen's Samantha Stanfield (Brooklyn, NY/James Madison HS) to push the Wildcat lead to 12 (40-28), the Rams rattled off 18 of the game's next 19 points to lead 46-41 with 13:02 remaining.  Back-to-back baskets from Allen brought Daemen within two but Ryerson's Silvana Jez hit a big three-point shot with the shot clock running down at 10:48 to momentarily stem the tide.  

After Jez's big shot, the Daemen defense stiffened and their offense came alive again with a wide array of drives of jump shots, mostly from Allen and Andorka.  Daemen used an 18-6 spurt, covering a nine-minute stretch to establish a 62-55 lead with 1:30 remaining.  Allen and Andorka accounted for 14 of the team's points during the run.

Jez hit another long range bomb with 1:17 left to cut the Daemen lead to just four at 62-58.  But, five Daemen free throws in crunch time from - you guessed it - Allen and Andorka sealed the deal for Daemen.

"Ellie and Chelsea really stepped up when we needed it," said Daemen head coach Dave Skolen.  "They played with a lot of energy and became very assertive during our crucial second half run."

The Wildcats return to action next week with home tilts vs. Wilfrid Laurier (Friday, Nov. 4 @ 5:30pm) and Brock (Saturday, Nov. 5 @ 12pm).