WINONA LAKE, IN - The Daemen Wildcats were given another tough pill to swallow tonight as their tough early season schedule saw them lose a heart-breaking 71-69 game to #6 Grace before a frenzied crowd at the Orthopaedic Capital Center. The Wildcats built double-figure leads in both halves, leading by as many as 12 at 60-48 in the second half before their offense sputtered, producing just nine points in the final 9:00 of the game. The Wildcats fall to 5-4 while Grace improves to 9-1.
"We let a golden opportunity slip past us tonight," said Daemen head coach Don Silveri. "We had these guys on the ropes tonight in their own gym and we let them off the hook. Had we been able to hit some shots late in the shot clock down the stretch it may have been a different story."
Grace erased the entire Daemen lead and took a one-point lead on a three-pointer by Jacob Peattie with under 2:00 to play. The teams traded leads down the stretch and Daemen's
Jim Regan (Williamsville, NY/Nichols HS) tied tge score at 69-69 off a feed from
Casey Sheehan (Rochester, NY/Greece Artgena HS) with 17 ticks to play. Grace's Bruce Grimm, Jr. calmly put the Lancers back ahead by 2 with 5.6 seconds left. An open three-point look from the Wildcats'
Dom Mazzocchi (Geneva, NY/Finger Lakes CC) was off the mark as time expired.
Daemen was led by the duo of Mazzocchi and Sheehan who combined for 35 points, scoring 20 and 15 respectively. Mazzocchi added a team-high six boards while Sheehan snatched a career-high six steals to go with four assists.
Seniors
Devon Dawson (Buffalo, NY/St. Joe's HS) and
Chandler Williams (Buffalo, NY/McKinley HS) split 16 points while sophomore
Mark Coppola (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South HS) added his usual six assists to go with seven points.
Grimm paced the Lancers with 17 points, none more important than his final bucket of the night - the game-winner. Greg Miller chipped in with 15 while big man Duke Johnson scored 14 and grabbed eight boards.
"We have proven that we can play with anybody in the country," Silveri added. "We just have to be better at closing out games when we have a lead."
The Wildcats return to action tomorrow in Fort Wayne when they face defending national runner-up St. Francis at 3pm.
