Score By Periods	1st	2nd	Total
Daemen (8-2)	42	40	82
Virginia Union (0-2)	31	35	66

ERIE, Pa. - Sophomore forward Jordan Greene (Fort Edward, N.Y./South Glens Falls) came off the bench and poured in a career-high 24 points on 8-of-10 shooting to lead the Daemen College men's basketball team to an 82-66 victory over the Virginia Union Panthers today at the Hammermill Center in the opening round of the 29th Annual Gary Miller Classic hosted by Gannon University.

Daemen, the defending champions of this event, improved to 8-2 on the season while knocking off one of the more storied programs in NCAA Division II history. The Panthers (0-2) entered the season as the third-winningest program in Division II history.

Daemen will face the host Golden Knights (3-0) in tomorrow's championship game as they dispatched of the Roberts Wesleyan Redhawks (1-2) in tonight's second semifinal 66-45.

The Wildcats opened in a funk today and fell behind by as many as 10 points in the early going. With VUU leading 18-8 at the 11:41 mark of the first half, Daemen got back into it with an 11-2 spurt covering almost three minutes. Greene sparked the run with five points, including his first of six three-pointers on the night.

Then, after the Panthers momentarily stemmed the tide, Daemen took its first lead of the game at 24-23 on a layup by Greene at the 5:54 mark.

The teams traded baskets over the next few minutes before the Wildcats closed the half on a 13-2 run to lead 41-32 at the break. Sophomore center Gerald Beverly (Rochester, N.Y./Gates Chili) accounted for eight points in the spurt.

To open the second half, Daemen rode the hot hand of junior guard Casey Sheehan (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) to open up a 16-point lead. Sheehan, the reigning Gary Miller Classic MVP, scored 12 of his 19 points, including two trey-balls and a thunderous one-handed slam, and assisted on another bucket to push the Wildcats to a 56-40 lead with 13:50 to play.

It was all over but the shouting from there as VUU got the deficit under double figures just once the remainder of the contest, at 63-54 on a layup by big man Damion Harris at the 7:21 mark.

Greene quickly erased any thoughts of a Panther comeback with another three-point shot and a traditional three-point play by Sheehan ran the lead back to 15 (69-54) with 6:35 remaining.

Sheehan's layup at the 5:30 mark gave Daemen its biggest lead of the contest, 73-56.  VUU would get no closer than 12 points the rest of the way,

After Greene and Sheehan's hot hands, the Wildcats got another double-double from Beverly (16 points, 10 rebounds) - his seventh of the season - as he connected on 10-of-11 free throw attempts.  Senior forward Jim Regan (Williamsville, N.Y./Nichols) added 10 points and seven rebounds while teaming with Beverly to provide a strong interior presence in the middle of Daemen's zone defense.  Beverly and Regan combined for seven of the team's eight blocked shots in the contest.

Junior point guard Mark Coppola (Williamsville, N.Y./Williamsville South) dished out seven assists to go with two steals.

Juan Wilson led the Panthers with 13 points and six rebounds.  Harris added 12 points and Calvin Brown chipped in with 11 points and five assists.

Daemen shot 52% from the field (28-for-54), 47% from three-point range (9-for-19) and 81% from the charity stripe (17-for-21).  In contrast, Virginia Union was limited to 25-of-69 from the field (36%), 4-of-11 from three-point range (36%) and converted just 12 of its 25 free throw attempts (48%).

Gannon got 15 points from sophomore guard Adam Blazek and overcame 29 turnovers to down the Redhawks, setting up tomorrow's championship showdown with the Wildcats. 

Last year, Daemen survived a late Golden Knight rally to beat the hosts 67-65 in the tournament semifinals before downing the Pitt-Johnstown Mountain Cats in the championship game the next day.  Last year's victory over Gannon was Daemen's first in 10 tries.

Tipoff tomorrow is set for 7:30pm from the Hammermill Center.  Live stats and live streaming video are available online.