ROCHESTER, NY- Strong play from their freshman reserves and a flurry of 3-pointers helped surge the University of Rochester men's basketball team to a 91-77 victory in the championship of the Chuck Resler Memorial Tournament over Keystone College Saturday night.
Rochester (2-0) used a rash of 3-pointers in the first half to break the game open towards the end of the first half. Freshmen
Kevin Sheehy and
Tyler Seidman along with senior
Chris Dende provided the spark from behind the arc for the Yellowjackets, who drained 11 first half three's to grab control of the championship game.
The game started off with both teams exchanging blows and swapping the lead back and forth for the first seven minutes of the contest. It was at around the 10 minute mark when Rochester's bench began to shine with senior big man
Marcus Williams and Sheehy. Williams was a force inside and made some big buckets for Rochester. Sheehy hit a big three that really energized the home crowd and stretched the UR lead to seven.
The Yellowjackets then kept firing from downtown as Dende and sophomore
Nate Vernon got in on the action. Another Sheehy three ball made the lead 13.
Late in the half, after a missed Keystone free throw, junior
John DiBartolomeo sprinted down court and nailed a buzzer beater to make the first half lead 21, with UR on top 54-33. DiBartolomeo finished with 17 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists and grabbed MVP honors for the tournament.
The Giants (2-1) were only able to chip away four points off the halftime deficit early in the second half.
About five minutes into the second session, Williams got two quick layups and secured some timely rebounds to build the Rochester lead to back over 20. Excellent UR passing led to the scores as the Yellowjackets finished with 21 assists, 10 more than their opponenets.
The threes kept falling midway through the second half, this time for both teams. Keystone's Tim Benedix tried to get the Giants back into the game with two 3's, but Sheehy rattled one in and Dende swished another to answer right back for Rochester.
The Yellowjackets maintained a comfortable lead the rest of the way and played out the game to the final score of 91-77.
Leading the way for Keystone was Duncan Lunsford who had 17 points and four rebounds. Malcolm Boone chipped in 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists for the Giants. Also, Mike Kelly had 12 points and four rebounds while Kenneth Hardnett had 8 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks for the Giants. Both Kelly and Hardnett were named to the All-Tournament team for their strong play over the two-day tournament.
The Yellowjackets finished with six players in double figure scoring, with DiBartolomeo leading the way with 17. Williams finished with a career best 13 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double. He was also named as the second UR member of the All-Tournament team. Dende notched 12 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists while Vernon and Sheehy each had 11 points. Seidman finished with 10 points in 24 minutes.
UR next takes on Nazareth in an away game on Tuesday November 22nd.
