ERIE, Pa. – The Daemen College men's basketball team forced overtime after battling back from an 18-point halftime deficit, but the Wildcats could not complete the comeback and suffered a 90-84 loss to Mercyhurst University here tonight in non-conference action.
Mercyhurst, a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, improved to 2-3 on the year, while Daemen suffered its second-straight road loss and fell to 2-2.
A trio of Rochester natives paced the Wildcats. Newcomer Torrence Dyck, Jr. (Rochester, N.Y./San Jacinto College) scored a game and career-high 29 points. The 6-foot-5 swingman connected on 11-of-19 shots and also collected six rebounds. Junior guard Supreme Hannah (Rochester, N.Y./Eastridge) also established a career-high for points (18) and handed out three assists. Senior forward Gerald Beverly (Rochester, N.Y./Gates Chili) recorded his second-straight (and 29th career) double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Beverly has now scored in double figures in 34-straight games. He also recorded three blocks and has now recorded at least one block in 37-straight games. He has totaled 231 career blocks and stands just three blocks shy of replacing 2006 graduate Ron Wright as the program's leader in career blocks. The Wildcats were without the services of junior forward Arif Mehmetaj (Jamaica, N.Y./SUNY Delhi) who was out with an injury. He had started the first three games and averaged 8.3 points and a team-high 8.7 rebounds.
Five players reached double figures for Mercyhurst. Junior Jean Onana (Yaounde, Cameroon) drained three three-pointers and scored 17 points, while former Cardinal O'Hara standout James Ewing (Buffalo, N.Y.) totaled 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Mercyhurst scored the first 10 points of the game, before the Wildcats responded with an 11-6 run and cut the lead to five points following a three-pointer by senior Aaron Davis (North Tonawanda, N.Y./North Tonawanda) with 8:28 left before intermission. Mercyhurst answered with a layup and three-pointer by senior Callon Dailey (Bowie, Md.) and later took a 16-point lead, 33-17, following a layup by junior Andy Hoying (Jackson Center, Ohio) with just under four minutes left in the half. The teams traded baskets the rest of the half and Onana drained a three-pointer just before the halftime buzzer that gave the hosts their largest lead of the game, 40-22.
Mercyhurst held a 47-33 lead five minutes into the second half when back-to-back three-pointers by Hannah sparked the Wildcats on a 13-3 run. A layup by Beverly with 11:25 left in regulation capped the run and cut the Laker lead to four points, 50-46. Daemen later took its first lead of the game, 58-57, following a jumper by Hannah with 6:44 left. The final five minutes featured four lead changes and three ties. Two free throws with 37 seconds left gave the Lakers a 70-68 lead, and Hannah knotted the game at 70-70 after he drained two from the charity stripe with 25 seconds left. Mercyhurst held for the last shot, but Onana's jumper was off the mark as time expired.
In a repeat of the first half, Mercyhurst opened the extra session by scoring 10 unanswered points. Daemen cut the lead to five points, 82-77, following a layup by Hannah with 1:13 left, but the Wildcats went scoreless and Mercyhurst hit 5-of-6 from the charity stripe over the next half minute.
Daemen shot 52-percent (32-62) from the field, while the Lakers connected on 30-of-66 (46%) shots. The Wildcats struggled from behind the three-point arc (8-for-20), while Mercyhurst connected on 11-of-27 from downtown. Daemen won the battle of the boards (39-31) and also posted a 42-28 advantage in points in the paint.
The Wildcats return to action Sunday (Nov. 30) when they host Dominican College of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference in a non-league game.
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