AMHERST, NY - After leading by as many as 16 points in the second half, the Daemen Wildcats were able to outlast a veteran University of Toronto ball club tonight in the Wildcats' season opener, taking a 68-65 decision before a raucous home crowd.  

"We did a good job of executing throughout the first 25 minutes of the ballgame," said Daemen head coach Don Silveri.  "They did some things defensively to take us out of our rhythm.  In the end, we made enough plays down the stretch to get the win."

Daemen used a 10-2 run over the last 5:26 of the first half to establish a 39-28 lead at the half.  To begin the second half, the Wildcats began pouring it on, leading 52-36 with 13:47 to go on an alley-oop slam from freshman Gerald Beverly (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili HS).

From there, the Varsity Blues began chipping away at the Daemen lead.  They cut the Daemen edge to just three at 61-58 with 3:13 remaining on a three-point bomb from forward Alex Hill - one of Hill's six trifectas on the night.

The Wildcats scored the next four with a bucket by senior Dom Mazzocchi (Geneva, NY/Finger Lakes CC) and two free throws by sophomore Mark Coppola (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South HS).  

After Hill connected from deep again to cut the Daemen lead to 65-61, Mazzocchi responded with a dagger three-pointer of his own inside of 40 seconds.

Just when it looked like the game would come down to Daemen free throw shooting, Hill bombed away again and was fouled with 17 ticks remaining.  He hit the free throw to complete the four-point play and Daemen led by just three again, 68-65.

After a missed Daemen free throw, Mazzocchi came through in the clutch blocking a Ben Garvin three-point attempt in the corner while fellow senior Devon Dawson (Buffalo, NY/St. Joe's HS) corralled the loose ball with 0.7 seconds left, preserving the Daemen victory.

Mazzocchi canned a game-high 25 points for Daemen on 10-of-16 shooting from the field.  Junior Jim Regan (Williamsville, NY/Nichols HS) added 16 points while Beverly came off the bench to throw in 10 points in his collegiate debut.  

Coppola ran the show for the Wildcats, finishing with a game-high six assists while fellow sophomore Casey Sheehan (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena HS) dished off for five assists.

Hill paced Toronto with 24 points.  Andrew Wasik was a beast inside with 13 points and 14 rebounds while Justin Holmes canned 12 points before fouling out.

Daemen is back in action tomorrow afternoon vs. York at 4pm.