WILBERFORCE, OH - With the potential to lock up the top seed in the upcoming American Mideast Conference Tournament, the Daemen Wildcats laid an egg this afternoon as they were defeated 68-58 by the host Wilberforce Bulldogs. The loss snaps Daemen's five-game winning streak and drops the Wildcats to 16-10 on the season. At 8-2 in conference play, Daemen is now tied with Walsh (18-4, 7-2 AMC) in the loss column for first place in the conference standings. With Walsh inelligible for post-season play, Daemen still controls the race for home court advantage at the AMC Tourney. Wilberforce, meanwhile improves to 10-16 overall and 6-3 in conference, maintaining a grasp on second in the conference standings.

23% shooting in the second half (7-for-30) doomed Daemen as they could not muster any type of consistent offensive threat after gaining a three point lead at the half, 28-25. Wilberforce, on the other hand, shot 13-for-26 in the second stanza (50%) and made all the plays it needed to down the stretch, winning the game despite committing 24 turnovers.

Darius Foster led the way for the Bulldogs with a game-high 20 points. Chris Olafioye added 14 points and nine rebounds. The Bulldogs also got 11 and 10 points, respectively, from reserves Lendyn Davis and Yann Sani. Davis and Sani accounted for all of the Bulldogs' bench scoring and out-scored the Daemen reserves 21-4.

Jim Regan and Dom Mazzocchi paced the Wildcats. Regan scored 19 points and grabbed seven boards while Mazzocchi matched Regan's rebound total and scored 17 points. Mark Coppola chipped in with nine points and five assists.

Daemen is now idle until Feb. 14 when they host Houghton at 7:30pm. At that time, they'll again have an opportunity to clinch the top seed in the AMC Tournament, unless Houghton knocks off Wilberforce on Feb. 11 in which case Daemen would clinch without having to play a game to do so.