AMHERST, N.Y. - The Saint Michael's College men's basketball team trailed by just four points with fewer than eight minutes remaining before yielding a large run to homestanding Daemen (N.Y.) College in a 92-69 loss on Monday morning at Lumsden Gymnasium. The Purple Knights are 1-9 after the teams' first meeting, while the Wildcats improved to 7-4.

Senior Matt Bonds (Accokeek, Md./North Point) turned in 20 points for the eighth time this year, finishing with exactly 20 and adding nine rebounds and four assists. Bonds, who entered the day tied for fifth in Division II with six double-doubles, has narrowly missed three additional double-doubles by notching nine boards in those contests. First-year Stan Foster (Rochester, N.Y./Avon Old Farms School), playing an hour from home, had his best game as a collegian, notching career highs of 15 points, six rebounds and four assists while shooting 5-of-8 from three-point range and rejecting three shots. Foster added a steal during 32 minutes off the bench.

Senior David Sullivan (Egg Harbor Township, N.J./Saint Augustine Prep) reached double figures for the third straight game with 10 points and three assists, and junior Colin Richey (Upton, Mass./Choate Rosemary Hall) had nine points, five rebounds and three assists. The Purple Knights shot better than Daemen, 46.7 percent to 46.5 percent, while hitting 44.4 percent of their shots from long range (8-of-18).

During the contest, Bonds leapfrogged Tyler Schilling '12 to take over fifth in school history in rebounding, increasing his total to 893 and edging beyond Schilling's 886. Only three Purple Knights have 900 for a career, and none have reached the plateau since the 1974-75 season.

The Wildcats received 79 of their 92 points from starters, as well as all 18 assists and all 13 threes. Sophomore Darius Garvin netted 22 points with eight rebounds, six assists and three steals, while redshirt first-year Jeff Redband had 19 points on 5-of-9 three-point shooting with three blocks. Redshirt senior Jesse Lalka notched 15 points, classmate Supreme Hannah collected 13 points and five helpers, and redshirt senior Arif Mehmetaj had 10 points and 12 boards.

Lalka hit a three 1:06 into the contest for the opening basket, and Garvin's triple - his team's third of the game - made it 11-6 by 16:28 of the first stanza. Foster buried a trey before Bonds knotted the game on a lay-in, and Richey canned a three to make it 14-all, but redshirt junior Aleks Miljenovic's hoop put Daemen back in front. The Purple Knights responded with the next 10 points, as first-year Thomas Jackson III (Middletown, Conn./Holderness School) made back-to-back threes in the middle of the run, and Bonds' jumper had the score 24-16 with 9:32 to go.

Saint Michael's continued to maintain its lead, never going up by more than eight, and was still ahead 36-28 with 4:06 left after Bonds blocked a shot and Foster sent him for a fastbreak bucket. The Wildcats notched the next 19 points, closing out the opening half with 10 to take a three-point edge into the locker room, and Redband's three at the 14-minute mark of the second period ballooned the lead to 56-44. A quick retort by the visitors found them trailing just 61-58 after a 14-5 jaunt took 4:34 to occur. Foster hit a pair of threes, and Sullivan came up with a steal and sent Richey for a breakaway bucket to conclude the stretch with 9:03 remaining in regulation.

Richey's jumper kept Saint Michael's within 64-60, but Lalka hit a three at 7:56 to kick off a game-icing 21-2 run, as Daemen led by as many as 28 points.

Saint Michael's returns home for its next four games, beginning by hosting Dominican (N.Y.) College on Dec. 30 at 1 p.m.