ERIE, PA - Sophomore guard
Casey Sheehan (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena HS) came off the bench and torched the nets at Gannon's Hammermill Center to lead the Daemen Wildcats to a second win over an NCAA II opponent in as many days with a 72-65 victory against the Pitt-Johnstown Mountain Cats in the championship game of the 28th Annual Gary Miller Classic. Sheehan was scorching hot throughout the contest as he nailed nine of his 11 field goal attempts, including 6-of-7 from three-point range, for a game-high 24 points en route to earning the tournament's Most Outstanding Player honor. With the win, Daemen improves to 5-3 this season; the Mountain Cats drop to 3-3.
"We put some real good practices together this week and it showed in our performances this weekend," said Daemen head coach Don Silveri. "We got contributions from everyone on our roster, from guy number one to guy number 11. We need to build on this and continue to improve as we get closer to conference play."
Sheehan's three-point barrage was part of the Wildcats' 9-for-19 showing from deep (47%) which helped them overcome a 13-shot disparity in free throw attempts. Pitt-Johnstown was rewarded as their game plan to pound the ball inside to 6'8" Patrick Grubbs and their other forwards produced 21 attempts from the charity stripe, compared to just eight for Daemen. The Mountain Cats only connected on 11 of those attempts, however (43%).
Daemen also got 14 points from senior
Dom Mazzocchi (Geneva, NY/Finger Lakes CC). Fellow senior
Devon Dawson (Buffalo, NY/St. Joe's HS) canned eight of his 10 points in the first half and added a game-high three steals. Sophomore forward
Kadeem Johnson (Syracuse, NY/Henninger HS) had 10 points and eight boards while junior
Jim Regan (Williamsville, NY/Nichols HS), who joined Sheehan on the All-Tournament Team, had a fine floor game with eight points, eight rebounds and two blocks.
Overshadowed a bit by Sheehan's impressive offensive outburst was the play of sophomore guard
Mark Coppola (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South HS) who finished with 10 assists on the night - his second 10+ assist game of the season. Silveri lauded the play if Coppola afterwards saying, "we don't come close to winning these back-to-back games without Mark doing what he does. He really sets the tone for us defensively and everyone feeds off his toughness."
Grubbs knocked home 18 points and guard Jordan Miller canned 19 for the Mountain Cats. Nick Novak added 14 as well.
The Wildcats are idle until a Dec. 9-10 road trip to Indiana where they'll face highly ranked NAIA II opponents Grace and St. Francis, the two-time defending national runner-up.
