ROCHESTER, NY - A hard working Daemen basketball team brought their hard hats and lunch pails on the road as they held the home-standing Roberts Wesleyan Raiders to 27% shooting (18-for-66) in a 65-46 drubbing to improve to 10-8 overall and 3-0 in conference play. The Raiders, meanwhile, fall to 5-11, 1-1.

"We got a tremendous defensive effort out of our team today," said head coach Don Silveri. "We still need to do a better job developing a killer instinct when we get a team on the ropes. Whenever we learn to do that, we'll be a very good basketball team."

Daemen jumped out to a 15-0 lead and held Roberts off the scoreboard until the 14:25 mark of the first half. From there, Daemen led by 14 at halftime (30-16) and were never seriously threatened in the second half. RWC managed just 21% shooting in the opening stanza (7-for-34).

"I thought our guards did a great job guarding on the perimeter," said Silveri, highlighting the efforts of sophomores Mark Coppola (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South HS), Casey Sheehan (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena HS) and Kadeem Johnson (Syracuse, NY/Henninger HS) who played a large part in holding Raider starters Mike Stone, Herbert Alexander and Patrick Downer to a combined 4-for-31 shooting from the field. "On top of that, our double teams down low on (Alif) Bland really frustrated them, I thought."

Junior Jim Regan (Williamsville, NY/Nichols HS) continued his string of fine play with a game-high 15 points along with six rebounds and four blocked shots. When combined with the stats of freshman Gerald Beverly (Rochester, NY/Gates Chili HS), who finished with eight points, six rebounds and three blocks, the Wildcats got great production from their center position (25 points, 12 rebounds, seven blocks), a key going into the game according to Silveri, considering they were playing against the 6'10" Bland, a potential All-Conference player.

Johnson added 10 points for Daemen as well. Sheehan tossed in eight points and seven assists while fellow sophomore Troy Nowak (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park HS) came off the bench to grab five boards.

Bland had 12 points to lead RWC but turned the ball over five times against Daemen's constant double teams. William Kemp-Harris added 11 for the Raiders.

Daemen returns to action when they host conference for Wilberforce on Thursday at 7:30pm.