AMHERST, NY - A 10-foot jump shot from David Tyndale with 20 seconds left was enough to lift the visiting York Lions to a 77-76 win over the Daemen Wildcats this afternoon in non-conference action at Lusmden Gymnasium.  With the loss, Daemen drops to 1-1 on the young season.

"We dug ourselves a hole and didn't play particularly well today," said Daemen College head coach Don Silveri.  "We came out flat and they were ready to go.  I give our guys credit for battling to the end, but give York credit too for executing their game plan."

Right out of the gates the Wildcats found themselves down 12-4 in the game's opening four minutes, prompting Silveri to take an early timeout.  The Wildcats regrouped and gained their composure out of the timeout and battled back, tying the score at 30-30 with 3:39 left in the half on a dazzling dunk by 6'7" freshman Gerald Beverly (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili HS).  York responded by scoring eight of the half's final 11 points to lead 38-33 at the half.

To open the second half, Daemen fell behind by as many as 12 points when Raheem Isaac hit a three-pointer at 15:51 to lead 52-40.  Daemen got it together again and in the span of just 1:40 cut the deficit to just 1 with an 11-0 spurt.  Beverly and junior Devon Dawson (Buffalo, NY/St. Joe's HS) accounted for nine of the 11 points in the Daemen run.

York took control again and ran their advantage back to nine points at 62-53 with 8:55 to go.  Daemen would again battle back, taking the lead at 67-66 on a bucket by Beverly with 4:07 to go.  

With the teams trading baskets and five lead changes in the final four minutes, the game was bound to come down to the wire.  Senior Dom Mazzocchi broke a 72-all tie with a jumper at 1:41 before fouling out on the next defensive possession.  

After Daemen's Mark Coppola (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South HS) drew a huge charge call against York, Daemen could not capitalize as the Lions forced a turnover and found Isaac who drilled another three, one of his five on the night, putting York ahead 75-74 with 1:03 to play.

Beverly canned back-to-back free throw attempts after being fouled in the post with 50 ticks left to put Daemen ahead again.  That set the stage for Tyndale's signature bucket.  In the waning seconds, Beverly's jump hook in the lane rang out and Dawson's three-point attempt at the buzzer was wide.

Lord Amherst Classic MVP honors went to York's Isaac who hit on 6-of-13 from the field for 21 points.  Tyndale paced the Lions with 22 while All-Tournament Team selection Nick Tufegdzich contributed 14 points and 10 rebounds.  Matthew Ziobrowski added a game-best 11 boards as the Lions waxed Daemen in the rebounding column 51-37.

Mazzocchi led the Wildcats with 22 points and nine boards.  The freshman Beverly, playing in just his second collegiate game, wowed the home crowd with a pair of alley-oop slams and another huge dunk on a first half fastbreak and finished with 21 points and eight rebounds.  Dawson knocked home 12 points, six of which came from the charity stripe.  

Next up for the Wildcats is a long trip to Fort Kent, ME for two games next weekend - vs. Maine-Machias (Sat. 11/12) and Maine-Fort Kent (Sun. 11/13).