AMHERST, N.Y. - Even the best offensive teams have to rely on their defense from time to time, and that was the case tonight at Lumsden Gymnasium as the Daemen College men's basketball team stymied visiting Molloy College, holding the guests to chilly 31-percent shooting en route to an 81-64 East Coast Conference victory - the fifth-straight for coach Mike MacDonald's Wildcats.

With the win, Daemen improves to 10-6 overall and 6-3 in ECC play, pulling into a tie with University of the District of Columbia (8-9, 6-3 ECC) for fourth place in the league standings.  Molloy, a team that's been ravaged by a number of close defeats this season, falls to 4-13 overall and 2-7 in the league.

Molloy connected on just 22-of-72 field goal attempts in the ballgame.  It was an especially cold start for the guests as they shot 29-percent overall in the first half (10-for-35), including 1-for-11 from three-point range.

With the Daemen defense getting consistent stops, the Wildcats went wire-to-wire in this one, holding the lead for nearly 39 of the 40 minutes.

Senior guard/forward Torrence Dyck (Rochester, N.Y./San Jacinto College), the reigning U.S. Basketball Writers Association Division II Player of the Week, narrowly missed a double-double tonight, scoring 20 points while adding nine boards.  Dyck hit 7-of-18 field goal attempts and went 6-for-9 from the charity stripe.

Arif Mehmetaj (Jamaica, N.Y./SUNY Delhi) stuffed the stat sheet by tossing in 19 points, nine rebounds, a team-high five assists and two blocks to aide the Daemen cause.  Freshman guard Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) added nine points, five rebounds and three assists, while redshirt-freshman guard/forward Deion Hamilton (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Athena) hit for nine points and added three boards.

Charlie Marquardt scored 22 of his game-high 24 points in the second half to pace Molloy.  Brandon Williams (eight points, six rebounds, five assists) had a nice floor game for the Lions who also got eight points from reserve forward Derrick Okunpolor.

The Lions' leading scorer, Jaylen Morris, who came in averaging 17.4 points per game, just never got comfortable tonight.  He was held to just four points on 2-for-9 shooting, but he did post a team-high nine rebounds.

Four-straight points by Dyck broke an early 9-9 tie and ignited an 11-0 Wildcat spurt that saw the hosts open up a 20-9 lead.  Molloy responded by scoring 10 of the next 13 points, including back-to-back buckets by Okunpolor and four-straight free throws from Maurice Gatson.  

But, with Daemen leading 22-19 at the 6:26 mark, the Wildcats were able to re-establish a double-figure lead, going on a 14-6 run to end the half, taking a 36-25 edge into the intermission.  Mehmetaj accounted for eight points in the spurt.

After missing all five of his first-half three-point attempts, Marquardt heated up to start the second, making back-to-back triples and totaling 14 points over the first seven minutes and change.  His trifecta at the 12:22 mark brought the Lions within four (47-43).

But, two Dyck layups book-ended an 8-0 run for the Wildcats, giving the hosts a 12-point lead (55-43) with 9:04 to play.  The run continued as the Wildcats opened up a 20-point lead (70-50) at the 4:31 mark following Mehmetaj's second three-pointer of the game, and the hosts never looked back late in the game.

Daemen shot 26-of-59 (44-percent) from the field, including 6-of-17 (35-percent) from three-point range.  The Wildcats did damage at the free throw line where they went 23-for-33 (70-percent), posting more makes than Molloy had attempts (15-for-19).

With Molloy struggling to shoot, the Wildcats opened up a 50-41 edge on the backboard.  On the offensive end, Daemen turned 12 offensive boards into an 18-11 edge in second-chance points.

The Wildcats go for their sixth-straight win when they host Queens College here on Sunday afternoon (January 24).  Tip-off is slated for 3 p.m.