BUFFALO, N.Y. (December 18, 2021) -- The Franklin Pierce University men's basketball team led by 12 in the second half, including by eight with under two minutes to play, but still had to hang on down the stretch on Saturday, for an 83-80 non-conference win on the road at Daemen. Freshman Mohamed Traore (Hyde Park, Mass.) led all players with 22, and hit a pair of late free throws to help finish things off. Graduate student Andrew Sischo tallied 20 points in defeat for Daemen.

With the victory, Franklin Pierce improves to 7-3 and has won five in a row, by a combined 18 points. With the loss, Daemen falls to 5-6. The game was part of a busy day of basketball hosted by Division I Canisius College, with three games held at Buffalo's downtown arena, home to the NHL's Buffalo Sabres and the NLL's Buffalo Bandits.

The Ravens led by three at halftime (38-35), and later used a 20-12 run to open up a 12-point lead (66-54) on a three-pointer from Traore with 11:42 to play. Franklin Pierce also led by 12 at 71-59, but then Daemen went to work from there. The Wildcats scored the next eight points of the game, including three-pointers from junior Nick MacDonald and graduate student Kyle Harris, to close the gap to four (71-67) with 5:52 to play.

Franklin Pierce stretched the lead back out to eight (80-72) on a pair of Traore free throws with 1:54 to play, but then junior Isaiah Moore (Tempe Hills, Md.) went just 1-for-4 from the stripe down the stretch, which let Daemen stick around. The Wildcats could not capitalize though, as graduate student and former Raven Sean Fasoyiro missed a pair of shots, and Harris came up empty on a triple as well. Daemen cut the gap to four on a layup by sophomore Andrew Mason with nine seconds to play, but it was too little, too late. Traore knocked down a pair of free throws to ice it, and a three-point play by MacDonald at the buzzer created the 83-80 final.

Traore went for 22 points, six rebounds and three assists, while junior Maxwell Zegarowski (South Hamilton, Mass.) notched his second consecutive double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Moore added 18 points, six assists, five rebounds and a pair of blocks.

For Daemen, it was a busy day for Sischo, who chalked up a 20-point, 17-rebound double-double before fouling out of the contest. Fasoyiro filled out a stat line of 14 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals against his former team, while MacDonald notched 16 points off the bench.

The Ravens wrap up their pre-holiday schedule on Monday, Dec. 20, with an NE10 contest at Southern New Hampshire at 2 p.m.