AMHERST, NY - The Daemen Wildcats snapped a two-game losing skid and jumped back over the .500 mark for the season (6-5) with a major upset over #4 Davenport (MI), winning 66-63, before a frenzied Lumsden Gymnasium crowd.  The win was Daemen's first against a top-five ranked team since they beat second-ranked Walsh (OH) 101-99 in overtime back on November 18, 2008.  Davenport falls to 13-2 on the season.

"You have to give all the credit in the world to our players," said Daemen head coach Don Silveri.  "We saw the film of Davenport's only loss this season (70-59 vs. Cardinal Stritch on Dec. 9) and we kind of copied their game plan.  We did a good job of emphasizing the importance of getting loose balls and taking charges and our players bought into what we were selling as a staff.  Us just being mentally and physically tougher made a big difference in the game tonight."

The Wildcats started the game very sluggish, missing their first six shots from the field and, consequently, falling behind 9-0 to the high-scoring Panthers who came in averaging 81.6 points per game.  Sophomore Kadeem Johnson (Syracuse, NY/Henninger HS) finally got the home squad on the board with his rebound and put-back at the 15:35 mark of the first half and paved the way for Johnson to play a prominent role later in the game.

Daemen was able to weather the initial storm and fought back to take their first lead of the night at 15-14 on a three-pointer from sophomore Casey Sheehan (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena HS) at 10:41 of the half.  From there, the remainder of the half was essentially a back-and-forth affair until Davenport seized the momentum with seven points in the final 1:22 of the half to lead 34-26.  Daemen was held to 38% shooting from the field (11-for-29) while the visitors enjoyed a 13-for-25 (52%) showing.

After withstanding an early second half run by Daemen, the Panthers extended their lead to 11 - their largest of the game - when Ford completed an old-fashioned three-point play at 15:52.  The Wildcats would respond, however, by scoring 10 straight points, five coming from Sheehan, and held Davenport without a point over five minutes.

Sophomore guard Mark Coppola (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South HS) gave Daemen its' first lead since 17-16 when he scored an unbelievable put-back off a missed shot with 9:27 to go.  The 5'7" Coppola came swooping in from the right side, caught the rebound and put it back in while in mid-air to put Daemen ahead 51-49.

Davenport would score the next six points to re-establish a brief edge at 55-51.  Again, the Wildcats would not go away and junior Jim Regan (Williamsville, NY/Nichols HS) put Daemen ahead 59-58 with a pair of free throws at the 3:12 mark.

Davenport's James Nelson would put the Panthers back on top with a layup on their next possession.  That set the stage for some heroics from the afore-mentioned Johnson who first gathered an offensive rebound to keep Daemen's next possession alive, then took a feed from Sheehan in the middle of the lane and finished a layup in traffic to put Daemen ahead 61-60.  Johnson, a 6'3" forward, then skied over everyone to corral a missed Davenport shot and was fouled in the process.  He converted the two bonus free throws to give Daemen a three-point lead.

After Daemen's Dom Mazzocchi (Geneva, NY/Finger Lakes CC) went 1-for-2 at the line, Daemen led 64-60 but another three-ball from Ford cut the Daemen lead to just one, at 64-63.  Mazzocchi converted both his free throw attempts on Daemen's next possession and Davenport missed two game-tying attempts in the final seconds, preserving the three-point win for Daemen.

Sheehan paced a balanced Daemen scoring effort with 17 points to go with six assists and five rebounds.  Regan and Johnson split 26 points and Johnson grabbed a team-best eight boards.  Mazzocchi canned 12 points and grabbed five boards, helping Daemen out-rebound Davenport 37-33 in the game.

Ford was spectacular for Davenport, scoring a game-high 23 points on 8-for-10 shooting, including 4-for-5 from beyond the arc, while also grabbing a game-high nine rebounds.  Big man James Humphrey was a focal point of the Davenport offense for much of the night and he contributed 20 points along with eight boards.

Daemen returns to action when they host their Holiday Classic next Wednesday and Thursday.  The Wildcats play host to the Fisher Falcons on Dec. 21 at 8pm to open the classic, as well as American Mideast Conference play.  Following that game, Daemen hosts Western Ontario at 6pm on Dec. 22.